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Back in July 2000, Microsoft unveiled its .NET initiative with rants and raves – which was also helped along with millions of dollars in marketing. It was hailed as the future platform for web services and redefining the ways users communicated and conducted business over the Internet. Even with Microsoft’s massive marketing power, it amazingly confused the public about the need for it and what it was. For our readers, I hope to clear this up. MS .NET is in general terms a host of new products based on a new set of technologies and platforms. Whether you need it or not is still to be decided.
The new platform offers support up to 26 different programming languages including JAVA, C/C++ and PERL. More importantly, it shares a hierarchy of classes to develop basic services. Application developed on the .NET platform no longer has to run in native machine code as it is operated on a virtual machine, similar to the JAVA virtual machine, Common Language Runtime (CLR). Ultimately, this is a bold move for Microsoft to gradually move from personal computers and client side environment to a network centric and open system, the Internet.
One of the most interesting aspects of .NET is the support for platform independent hardware since languages are compiled via an intermediate binary code. This language is MSIL: Microsoft Intermediate Language. In the past, Microsoft has aggressively courted software developers to design applications for the Windows operating system. By opening the floodgates, Microsoft has decided to attack JAVA head on. This is a significantly step for Microsoft as they have been losing support among programmers who have opted to embrace JAVA for application development to save time from porting to multiple platforms. Microsoft also intends to support flavours of Linux and Unix operating systems. This is probably a small admission from Microsoft that co-existence with other platforms will be the key to its success.
Portable hand held devices will be a new market for the company to break into with .NET. Applications compiled as intermediate code are presented as Portable Executables (PEs). Hence, Applications implemented by .NET will be able to run on portable devices running PocketPC operating systems. The PocketPC operating system is Microsoft’s answer to the PalmOS.
Another intriguing aspect of .NET is the introduction of the new language C# (pronounced C sharp). It is a language that combines both aspects of C and C++, in additional, some JAVA features. The new language is flexible as Visual Basics but as powerful as C++. This hopefully will reduce the learning curve of current C++ programmers and be able to develop applications rather quickly when the language is finalized. The company, to its credit, has done an excellent job in supporting its existing C developers to C#. One of the key functions includes the ability to convert source code from C to C# systematically is a testament of its efforts. However, the introduction of new libraries means developers will still need to study and learn about new libraries and programming structures to get the most of the new language.
Whether .NET will assert itself into the software development community will largely depend on Microsoft’s ability to market its products and persuade developers. As with any new platform or technology it will take time if Microsoft can win back the horde of developers that have jumped on the JAVA bandwagon. Nonetheless, it will be an interesting battle – on and off the field.
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