Visual J++

Visual J++ was Microsoft's implementation of the Java language, introduced in 1996 and discontinued in January 2004. Its syntax, reserved words and grammar conventions were the same as Java's, but Microsoft's runtime, the MSJVM, did not pass Sun Microsystems' compliance tests, which led Sun, Java's creator, to sue. J++ left out parts of Sun's platform such as Remote Method Invocation and the Java Native Interface, and added extensions of its own, including callbacks and delegates for event handling, the J/Direct mechanism for reaching the Win32 interface directly, and the Windows Foundation Classes library for building graphical interfaces on Windows. The name also covered the integrated development environment that shipped in the Visual Studio product line, where version 6.0 was the last release to include it. A 2004 settlement froze J++ at the feature set of Java version 1.1.4, which effectively ended its updates. Its technology survived for a while as part of the .NET platform and the J# language.