[Info-vax] VMS Cobol - GnuCOBOL

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 2/25/2023 4:47 PM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
> John Dallman <jgd at cix.co.uk> wrote:
>> In article <ttd4ta$2j12a$2 at dont-email.me>, arne at vajhoej.dk (Arne Vajhøj)
>> wrote:
>>> C# and Java are very similar. I don't think MS ever made a secret
>>> of that.
>>
>> Microsoft started on .NET during their lawsuit with Sun over their
>> incomplete-but-extended Java implementation. They seem to have hoped to
>> replace Java with .NET.
> 
> Java is a whole bunch of things.  It's an environment, it's a set of
> libraries, and it's a programming language.

True.

Language, library and virtual machine. 3 separate specs.

> C#, ASP.NET, and ActiveX together sort of make up a thing that Microsoft
> hoped would replace Java.

I would say:

Java language = C#
Java library = .NET library
Java virtual machine = CLR
Java byte code = CIL
ASP.NET = front half of J2EE/Java EE/Jakarta EE
ActiveX = Java Beans

 >                         C# and .NET had some degree of success anyway.

Absolutely.

>>> There are of course also some differences. C# got
>>> unsafe blocks with pointers (nobody use them) ...
>>
>> The main thing those are useful for is calling native code. It's way
>> easier than using JNI.
> 
> Which of course defeats the whole purpose of having a sandbox... but that's
> Microsoft...

Java does not have the unsafe blocks and star pointers.

Java does have the ability to call native unsafe code via JNI (assuming
not blocked by a security manager).

But in some weird way then the fact that using JNI is about as
much fun as getting a root canal treatment at the dentist has
probably helped keeping most Java WORA.

Arne