[ Thanks to Kevin
Reichard for this link. ]
“When Microsoft has its back against the wall, it typically
responds with some vague press announcements, promising to change
the world with some new, buzzword-compliant technology. Never mind
that the technology is usually nothing more than a vague concept,
but the announcement is usually enough to freeze competitors and
reassure the stock market that the Cash Cow known as Microsoft will
continue to grow.“
“That pattern was certainly extended today with C#, touted by
Microsoft as the programming cornerstone of Visual Studio 7, itself
the development cornerstone of the vague concept known as
microsoft.net. Now, having just spent some time perusing the
Microsoft press releases and Web site for microsoft.net, I can tell
you that a) the Microsoft press machine is in fine mettle, and b)
that there’s a pretty good chance that no one at Microsoft really
knows what C# really is, except that it will be Java-like and
C-like and will support XML. Ooh, the triple play of
buzzwords!”
“Although Microsoft isn’t really saying a whole lot (though
enough to keep us guessing and curious), they have said that C#
will have the functionality of Java but won’t actually be Java (the
better to avoid nasty litigation with Sun), with added goodies like
garbage collection and the ability to manipulate data via XML.”