Gambling with Visual J++ 6.0
By Al Williams
When I returned from vacation in Las Vegas this
year, I found a preview copy of Visual J++ 6.0 on my doorstep. I'd been anxious
to try out this latest incarnation of Microsoft's flavor of Java. In Vegas,
my wife discovered she really likes slot machines, if you know what I mean,
so I decided to write a slot machine in Java to put Visual J++ through its
paces. What I found was surprising, to say the least. Some things surprised
me in a very positive way–Visual J++ 6.0 (msdn.microsoft.com/visualj) has
some very nice features and is a real productivity booster. However, there
were a few unpleasant surprises as well.
When you start Visual J++ 6.0, you can't help but notice how much the development
interface looks like an improved version of Visual Basic. This is no accident,
and I think it's a good thing. The environment has many new features that
increase productivity, as you'll see shortly. Context-sensitive help is a
keystroke away, of course.
However, you won't need help as often as you might expect because of what
Microsoft calls IntelliSense technology. When you type an object name followed
by a period, Visual J++ pops up the legal choices you can use. If you keep
typing, fine–the list stays in sync with your typing. However, at any time,
you can use the arrow keys or the mouse to select an item from the list.
