Programming Windows: Microsoft and Java (Premium)

Fearing that Microsoft would try to undermine Java by creating incompatible versions that only ran on Windows, Sun Microsystems insisted that the software giant agree to create the “reference implementations” of the technology for Windows 95 and NT.

Sun was right to be worried: As internal documentation later made public at Microsoft’s antitrust trial revealed, the firm intended all along to usurp Java with Windows-only features that would bifurcate the market and make moot the technology’s cross-platform advantages. Doing so would have the added benefit of harming Netscape because that company’s web browser, called Navigator, relied on Java as well. Only Microsoft’s web browser, Internet Explorer, would be able to run applets created with Microsoft’s specially tailored version of Java.

Microsoft would develop and release a family of Java products and services, codenamed Jakarta, by the end of 1996. These included its Java virtual machine (JVM) for Internet Explorer 3.0 (across Windows 3.1, 95, and NT, and Mac) with its just-in-time (JIT) compiler, Visual J++, its Java developer environment, and the ability for developers to integrate Java with COM objects through Microsoft’s Internet-based ActiveX technologies.

(Fun aside: The name Visual J++ was a play on the name of Microsoft’s C++ developer environment, Visual C++.)

That latter capability was the source of Sun’s fears and the manner by which Microsoft would usurp Java under the guise of extending the technology to work better with Windows.

“Integrating the Java language with COM is something our customers and partners think is extremely important,” Microsoft senior vice president Brad Silverberg was credited with saying in a March 1996 press release. “It brings a whole new dimension to Java: A clear path for integration with existing applications, systems, and technologies. It means that you don’t have to start over to take advantage of Java.”

In case it’s not obvious, the “you” in that last sentence was Microsoft’s customer base, everyone from the developers that targeted its platforms to the corporations and end-users that relied on the resulting software. So, yes, Microsoft’s embrace of Java was self-serving, and an attempt to blunt a major competitor. But the software giant also allowed advanced Java well past the functionality provided by its creators and truly integrated it, and quickly, into the Microsoft software stack.

Indeed, the level of support Microsoft provided for Sun’s language was quite impressive. The first version of Visual J++ was made available to developers in beta form that summer, and it shipped in release form in October. It also entered a market that was crowded with Java developer tools, from Sun’s Java Workshop to third party options like Borland Latte, Symantec Café, and others, but quickly emerged as a front-runner.

Several things set Visual J++ apart from the competition. For one, it was...