The words open and Microsoft Corp. are rarely seen together. In server operating systems, Web browsers, programming languages, and countless other areas, Microsoft has proven that it needn't embrace openness to be successful. What, then, would possess the world's most infamously proprietary software vendor to dream up a marvelous programming language only to give it away to a public standards body?

Microsoft developed the C# (C Sharp) language. It created just-in-time C# compilers and a rich layer of standard data types and services it calls the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI). The combination of C# and the CLI, as packaged in June's beta 2 release of the .NET software developer's kit, supports the creation of text and graphical applications, server-side Web apps, components, and Web services. Most of this functionality has been submitted to the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) for standards consideration, effectively granting everyone the right to come up with C# compilers and CLI implementations of their own.

Assuming Microsoft follows through, C# will enjoy the kind of universal portability promised by Java but without restrictive license terms. In turn, business will have a new, powerful, and appealing programming language at its disposal. Conceivably, Microsoft could still withdraw C# from the standards process, but it isn't likely.

C# follows the time-honored Microsoft practice of invention through improvement. C# weaves together the best traits of C++, Java, JavaScript (now ECMAScript), and Visual Basic (VB). C#'s varied lineage makes it elegant, safe, and easy to learn. The language alone isn't enough to make an application: The accompanying CLI ensures that all C# programs will have a standard set of data types and classes covering everything from output formatting to network I/O.

As did VB before it, C# acknowledges that not all software is written by wizard-level programmers and sloppy code is inevitable. C++ is notoriously unforgiving of bad, hurried, or naively crafted programs. In contrast, Visual Basic has always given novice and intermediate programmers a safe place to work.

C++ programmers envy VB, but not for its safety. Microsoft wired an understanding of COM (Component Object Model) directly into VB. The company made many attempts to simplify C++ developers' access to COM, but Microsoft was not free to add keywords to the standardized C++ as it did to its proprietary dialect of Basic.

Reason suggests that C++ developers craving VB's ease-of-use could simply switch to VB, but most programmers won't code in what they consider a lesser language. C++ developers will learn and use C# because it retains the C++ features they admire most.

Eventually, C# will replace C++ for most Windows development, including commercial applications. C# is much cleaner than all the Windows and COM layers Microsoft has added to C++.

Some of the features that made VB so easy to learn have been shelved to make VB 7 (the version in Visual Studio.NET) compatible with the CLI. Merely competent VB programmers, along with their applications, won't pass muster under the stricter coding rules imposed by VB 7.

Microsoft's CLI is a key part of .NET. It standardizes data types

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