Microsoft and Sun explain Java to court

Representatives of Microsoft Corporation and Sun Microsystems appeared before Judge Ronald Whyte this week to explain the technical implicationsof Java and Microsoft's modifications to that language. The presentationswere part of pre-trial preparation for next month's legal blowout. Sun hassued Microsoft for creating a version of Java that runs only on Windows.

Microsoft, in its presentation, maintains that developers can use itsVisual J++ tool to write Windows-only Java applications if they want, butthey can also write so-called "Pure Java" applications that will run on anysystem with Sun's Java Virtual Machine (JVM) if desired. Microsoft showedthe feature in Visual J++ that enables this feature.

"Developers' lives are full of trade-offs," said Microsoft product managerGreg DiMichille. "Should I make it small or fast? There are differences among platforms--in APIs, in features, in what hardware they run on--andoperating systems do compete on who has the best features. The Mac was successful because of PageMaker, and PageMaker was successful because Applehad rich APIs for graphics and printing."

Sun says that Microsoft deliberately added two new keywords to the Javalanguage and some compiler directives that tie it to Microsoft's, ratherthan Sun's, implementation of Java. Microsoft also refuses to support Sun'sJava Native Interface (JNI) technology and has, instead, developed its ownRaw Native Interface (RNI) that only works in Windows. Sun says thatdevelopers using Microsoft Visual J++ cannot switch back to "Pure Java"once they've started programming: The option to do so must be set beforeprogramming begins.

"If the programmer steers clear of the Microsoft dialect from day one, there are no problems, but this is not the default mode of Visual J++," said Sun Vice President Bud Tribble. "This is exactly what happened to C and C++. Dialects developed--for good reasons--and Java is designed to address this Tower of Babel.