Mainsoft introduces .NET-to-Java translation tool 
UPDATED - Interop house Mainsoft announced Mainsoft for Java EE
Version 2.2, an interoperability toolkit that translates .NET code into
Java applications. It enables a development team to write applications
using C# and VB.NET and translate these to run on a Java EE server. ASP.NET controls can convert to run on Java Server Pages. The toolkit is accessed as a plug-in to Visual Studio, which can compile code directly to Java byte code.
"With the 2.2 release, developers can use the Visual Studio development environment and ASP.NET
AJAX to develop enterprise applications with a sophisticated user
interface, and deploy their applications on Windows servers, Java EE
servers, or both," said Yaacov Cohen, Mainsoft CEO.
Mainsoft has enabled Linux
support through its five-year collaboration with the Novell/Mono
project, but this new toolkit allows .NET translation to Java
independently of Mono. The company continues to work with Mono
technology as well, however.
"We see a lot of enterprise shops that are interested in supporting
Java for performance, scalability, and security," said Cohen. "We are
enabling these enterprises to decouple development decisions from
deployment and product needs."
Healthways,
a Microsoft development shop, is using the toolkit to port its
applications to Java, in order to better support up to 27-million
users. Cohen said, "We enabled them with only two days of training to
implement a pretty advanced document management system in five-months
on WebSphere using C#. Enterprises looking at hundreds of thousands of
concurrent users have a tendency to pick Java as an infrastructure. "
As an example of some limitations in native .NET portal architecture,
he noted that a SharePoint list cannot hold more than 2,000 items,
while a WebSphere list can have millions.
New Algorithms for AJAX serialization
Mainsoft faced a number of challenges in optimizing the toolkit to
improve Java performance. One enhancement was the use of new algorithms
for converting integers and real numbers into the HTML and XML strings
used to carry data between an AJAX server and client.
Eyal Eliahu Alaluf, vice president of technology at Mainsoft said,
"We deliver 2.6 times faster the number of conversion to strings for
integers and 3 times as fast as Java real number conversions. We found
that an application would spend 5 to 10% of its time on these
conversions. " Mainsoft has made these algorithms available to the Mono
community, as well.
Mainsoft also developed another algorithm that improves garbage
collection in compiled Java apps. Eliahu Alaluf said a new .NET feature
known as Suppress Finalize allowed the Java applications to have the
same or better performance than .NET in garbage collection.
Maintaining a Single Code Base
Gaiaware has been one of the first companies to use the new toolkit
to port its complete AJAX Widget library to Java in only a week. Thomas
Hansen, founder of Gaiaware said, "We want to support as many platforms
as we can on the client and the server side."
Gaiaware's unique selling point is that it allows developers to
create JavaScript applications using C# without JavaScript. Up until
now, Gaiaware's library only ran on ASP.NET. With the new Mainsoft toolset, they have been able to translate the library to run on Java 2 Enterprise Edition.
Hansen said he was stunned by the improved speed of porting to Java.
"To do this kind of refactoring by hand would have taken six developers
working 120-hour weeks almost 18 months," he said. "Everyone is looking
for that Holy Grail where they can maintain one code source, and for us, Mainsoft is delivering on that promise."
Translation Not For Everybody
While this new toolkit does help remove some of the barriers between
.NET development and Java deployment, there are other factors involved
in transitioning your organization to Java. Organizations need to think
about the existing corporate IT infrastructure and vendor relationships
before committing to a significant change.
"Historically, Java used to have better scalability, and .NET had
better development tools. Some differences remain, but they are not as
pronounced as in the past," said Ray Valdez, research director at
Gartner Group." If you are happy with one, there is no compelling
reason to go to the other. Often the reasons someone would switch are
political or mergers and acquisitions. It is more about track record
and ecosystem and people skills than raw technology."

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