[ Thanks to dmitchell for this link. ]
“Microsoft’s ‘Java killer’ object-oriented language, Cool, looks
set to be released publicly in the next few weeks, The Register has
learned.”
“And the language will ship with tools to translate Java source
code into Cool.”
“Cool isn’t a language in its own right — rather, it’s a
series of extensions to C++ designed to make C++ as easy to program
as Java, in the hope that programmers will, frankly, stop using the
Sun product. The technology comprises a programming framework
that will hook into the next version of Microsoft’s Common Object
Model, COM+, part of Windows 2000.”
“Cool started life as an internal Microsoft project to create an
alternative to Sun if the latter’s legal battle over the ‘purity’
of Microsoft’s implementation of Java, from its virtual machines
through to its Visual J development environment, went against the
Gates Gang.”