email article printer friendly more resources

Java Open Source for Visual Studio
Hear what two open source leaders, Yaacov Cohen and Miguel de Icaza, have to say about Microsoft and Java open source trends
by Peter Varhol

June 1, 2005

What if you could develop Java applications using Visual Studio? Some might argue that there are plenty of value-priced or free Java IDEs, so there is not necessarily any inherent value in working in Visual Studio. However, if you already write both Microsoft and Java code, or if you don’t know Java very well, Visual Studio could be an intriguing solution.

Mainsoft offers a way to build Java applications by writing Visual Studio code and dynamically translating Microsoft IL into Java bytecode. A new free offering, the Visual MainWin for J2EE Developer Edition, is available for download on the Mainsoft Web site (see Resources).

Java Pro columnist Peter Varhol talked recently to Yaacov Cohen, CEO of Mainsoft, and Miguel de Icaza, leader of the Mono project, on the topics of open source development and the use of Visual Studio.

Java Pro: You say Visual Studio developers want the ability to write Linux code. Why do you think this is the case? What do you think having this ability says about Visual Studio?

Yaacov Cohen: It says that there are a lot of developers who want to work in Visual Studio or that have experience working in Visual Studio. They want to write Java applications, and contribute to the open source community. According to an Evans Data survey, 22 percent of Visual Studio developers also write applications for Linux. There's a built-in audience for Java development using Visual Studio. Certainly those who are used to working in Visual Studio will find that they can leverage the productivity advantages of Visual Studio while deploying on a Java Tomcat server.

JP: Our experience is that average corporate IT developers work in just a single platform and even [a single] language. Do these people have alter egos, or are we looking beyond this type of developer?

Miguel de Icaza: All developers are highly curious, and Linux and open source have a certain buzz about them right now. Even those who haven't written a substantial amount of code for Linux are looking at the platform. They are interested in learning more about it, and writing code for it.

Cohen: There are also corporate needs to deploy on the Java platform, even if the developers primarily work with Visual Studio. It's not unusual to have a corporate mandate to deploy certain applications to Java, for example. If you have Visual Studio skills, but not necessarily Java skills, you can do this with Visual MainWin, which saves the time and money of porting to Java manually or bringing on a new Java team.