Visual J++
Visual J++
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Visual J++

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Visual J++

Visual J++ is Microsoft's discontinued implementation of Java. Syntax, reserved words (keywords), and formal grammar conventions are the same as Java's. It was introduced in 1996 and discontinued in January 2004, replaced to a certain extent by J# and C#.

The implementation, MSJVM, did not pass Sun Microsystems' compliance tests, leading to a lawsuit from Sun, Java's creator. Microsoft ceased such support for the MSJVM on December 31, 2007 (later Oracle bought Sun, and with it Java and its trademarks). Microsoft however, officially started distributing Java again in 2021 (though not bundled with Windows or its web browsers as before), i.e. their build of Oracle's OpenJDK, which Microsoft plans to support for at least 6 years, for LTS versions, i.e. to September 2027 for Java 17.

While J++ conformed to the Java language specification, Microsoft did not implement certain features of the official Sun Java implementation in its Visual J++ product line. Remote Method Invocation (Java RMI) and Java Native Interface (JNI) are such examples.

In addition, J++ implemented other extensions that were not part of Sun's Java implementation. The inclusion of callbacks and delegates for event handling further defined J++ as a completely different language merely based on an already existing design concept.

Furthermore, J++ applications did not conform to the same standardized method of accessing the underlying operating system functions as any other Java application under Sun's Java SDK. In Microsoft's implementation, an underlying framework called J/Direct provided a base mechanism that allowed J++ applications to completely circumvent Java's class libraries and API in accessing the underlying operating system. Due to this short-cut around the original Java framework, J++ applications were more efficient in taking advantage of Win32 API functions than Java applications.

J++ applications using these features could not be run on Sun's Java SDK, but the Kaffe project developed extensions which made it possible to run J++ applications with these features on their open sourced JVM. However, these extensions (implemented by TransVirtual under Microsoft funding) were not widely used, and J++ applications still needed to be compiled on Visual J++ before being able to be run by Kaffe.

Visual J++ supported ActiveX.

Here are some examples of Visual J++.

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