.NET is multi-language with support for C#, VB.NET, Python, Cobol, etc …  but supports deployment on a single platform: Windows. On the other hand, Java is mono language but multi-platform: you need to write in Java to run on a Java VM but pretty much every OS supports Java.

This makes .NET a very productive development environment, and Java an incredibly flexible production platform. The basic idea of Grasshopper is simple: let’s get the best of both worlds, bringing C# and VB.NET to the Java EE platform!

This is possible because the Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) and Java bytecode are in fact very similar as demonstrated by the IKVM.NET  project, which takes Java bytecode to MSIL, and by Grasshopper, which takes MSIL to Java bytecode.

Recently, Sun has been also talking about “running a variety of programming languages on the the Java platform” with the JSR 292 specifications.

22,000 Grasshopper developers have already discovered that this trend could open an era of greater interoperability between the Microsoft and Java worlds. It also delivers more languages choice for the IT organizations running Java EE and more deployment platform choice for the .NET developers.

A new era of increased flexibility and greater choice …

Yaacov