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[Michael S Czeiszperger <czei AT webperfcenter.com>]

On Monday 13 November 2000 08:47, Thomas A. Beckett wrote:
> Christina's got an article in today's N&O about Microsoft's new C#
> programming language.
> http://www.newsobserver.com/monday/business/Story/246845p-234669c.html
>
>       The Stingray people quoted there say its a significant new technology
> (albeit still in beta).  Anybody here have any experience with C# yet?
> I'm curious whether it's really something new or just another chapter in
> the M$ effort to co-opt the entire Net.
>

I've read a few articles on it, including one in Dr. Dobbs Journal with quite 
a bit of source code. There wasn't one significant difference between the 
syntax of C# and Java. As far as I can tell they just copied the Java syntax 
exactly, and threw in features to access low-level Windows features.

The marketing surrounding C# is brilliant. They can claim that C# will be a
public standard, knowing that most people won't be able to tell the 
difference between a programming language and a library. You can program in a 
standard language, like C, but you can't do much without programming 
libraries, and these will still be proprietary to Microsoft. This allows 
Microsoft to simultaneously say they support standards, while keeping total 
control over the Application Programming Interfaces. 

This is the essence of their strategy to kill off any competitor who actually 
uses published specifications in terms of protocols and libraries. Microsoft 
is able to provide compatibility for standards with Windows, because the 
standards are published, making it very easy to port your application to 
Windows, while simultaneous "extending" the standard so that anything written 
on Windows with Microsoft's version of the "standard" won't port anywhere 
else since the extensions are always proprietary and mostly unpublished.

I ask you then, which language is more "open", one in which every single 
aspect is public and can be re-implemented in a clean room, allowing for 
competition, or one that is nothing more than a front end to a proprietary 
operation system for which it is impossible to get a specification?

-- 
Michael S Czeiszperger | czei AT webperfcenter.com
Board Member, Triangle Java User's Group