From InfoWorld: Over the years, Microsoft has not been the biggest advocate for Java, no matter how pervasive it has become. In fact, the company was entangled in a bitter legal battle over the platform with Java founder Sun Microsystems many years ago. But times have changed. Now, Microsoft Open Technologies, a subsidiary of Microsoft focused on “open” technologies and interoperability, is promoting a Java-based approach to building cross-platform mobile apps.
JUniversal is a free tool for development of native, cross-platform apps in Java, as presented in a recent blog post by Microsoft Open Tech. Meanwhile, JUniversal’s own site reads, “Don’t just write an Android app. Write a cross-platform Java app.” JUniversal, the site says, “lets you write code in Java (like you probably already do if you develop for Android) and take that code to places you never thought it could go.” Primarily focused on code-sharing across mobile apps, the technology can extend to nonmobile scenarios.
Developers build code in their favorite Java IDE. In their build scripts, they invoke JUniversal for source code translation to C# for Windows Phone. Soon, they'll also be able to convert the Java code to C++/Objective C++ for Apple’s iOS platform or for performance-critical code on Android NDK/Windows. Google’s j2ojbc converter can be used to convert to Objective C.
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