Free Resources Help Java Developers Embrace C# and the .NET Framework

A number of free resources available from Microsoft come to lend a helping hand to Java developers looking to embrace C# and the .NET Framework.

Under the label “Moving to C# and the .NET Framework, for Java Developers,” a number of downloads have been made available by the Redmond company.

Java devs can access a number of videos and documentation on the Microsoft Download Center, with the promise from the software giant that the resources are designed to make the best of their existing knowledge of Java solutions architecture.

Of course, it’s bound to be quite hard for Microsoft to convert Java developers to its own technologies with just a few training videos and docs, but the company could at least spark the transition.

In the end, the resources could prove to be sufficient to at least get developers leveraging technologies such as NetBeans, Eclipse, and the Spring framework to at least raise an eyebrow to the promise that their existing skill sets will permit them to build projects for Windows, using the .NET Framework and C#.

Microsoft’s David S. Cox asks in a recent blog post about the chances for Java to become the next COBOL.

This isn’t the case yet, and even COBOL is far from being defunct, but in the eventuality of a worst case scenario, Java devs would at least have something to fall back on.

“Programming language largely becomes an expression of style and task at hand. The major difference is with the Java runtime (JVM) you can only easily express yourself with the Java language, however, with the .NET runtime (CLR) you can express yourself in VB, C#, C++, Perl, Python, Java(1.6 and below) and new comers like F#, etc.,” Cox stated.

“So freedom of expression is enabled with .NET while the Java Platform remains restrictive. What languages will dominate in the future? The simplest and easiest to use, least costly to support and which provide the quickest time to market are likely to flourish. But more importantly those that adapt most easily to a rapidly changing environment.”