The .NET Development Platform Tools

Unlike the previous platform shift from Win16 to Win32 APIs, the shift from Win32 to the .NET development platform includes changes to existing languages and tools and introduces completely new languages. As a consequence, organizations deciding to use the .NET development platform must not only change their platform strategy but must also rethink their language and tool strategy.

.NET Development Platform Languages

Two new versions of existing Microsoft programming languages support the CLR and class libraries: Visual Basic .NET and Visual C++ .NET. They are joined by two new languages: Visual C# (pronounced “C-sharp”) and Visual J# (pronounced “J-sharp”), which allows Visual J++ developers to create managed code using a familiar syntax.

Microsoft frequently makes the point that one of the largest differences between the .NET development platform and other programming environments, such as Java, is that the .NET development platform supports multiple programming languages. (For additional information on the differences between .NET and Java, see the sidebar “Comparison of the .NET Development Platform and J2EE“.) This multiple language support allows programmers with different skill sets to create components using the language they know best, yet still have all those components interoperate smoothly. But it also raises a question-how do development and project managers choose which language to use for their applications?