Microsoft Corp’s beta program for its Java development environment, Visual J++ (CI No 2,871), previously codenamed Jakarta (CI No 2,936) gets underway today. The Redmonder calls it a professional edition but developers shouldn’t expect a light version of the tool. Microsoft was naturally trumpeting its ActiveX support, enabling any Java applications developed using the tool to be extended using ActiveX controls. Visual J++ features aspects of its Developer Studio development environment technology used in its Visual C++, including development wizards, to speed the development process and a graphical debugger, so applets can be debugged from the browser, multiple applets on the same Web page and also debug at the byte-code level. The choice of the name also indicates Redmond’s belief that this is just another one of its development environments. The product is due to ship in the fall when pricing will be finalized. Beta programmers should point their browsers at www.microsoft.com/ visualj.
