Java to C# migration

Question

Hi all I would like to get info on tools avaialable for conversion of Java to C#. nfo like Licensed/free  effort required for conversion etc would be helpful.

Ajay Gour · Answer

I am not too sure if there's any open source tool available i am aware of a tool called as JLCA (Java Language Conversion Assistant). If i am not wrong it was a part of Visual Studio 2005. It claims to translate basic language features Java UI Components to Windows Forms and translates Servlets/JSPs. If JLCA is not able to translate a peiece of code then it would provide suggestions for manual translation. Let me list out a few points around which one need to concentrate more while identifying the efforts required for migration. Delegates/Indexers/Properties - They are not in Java but from application design point of view these are very important. Collection APIs - Difference in Collection APIs hierarchy. They are not same especially Dictionary Objects are derived from ICollection which is not the case with Java. In Java List objects and Map objects are in separate hierarchy. IO APIs - C# supports synchronous & asynchronous reading/writing operations in same Stream class which is not the case with Java. It offers different Stream classes for readign and writing and entire different set of APIs (in java.nio package) for asynchronous reading/writing. Threading and Synchronization differences. C# supports threads with delegates. Java doesn't have delegates at all. Database APIs - I am not too sure but if i am wrong C# ADO.Net has inbuilt support for SQL and Oracle and you must be knowing Java relies on vendor specific implementation of JDBC. So you would need to consider that as well. There are several other things you would need to consider in effort estimation which are difficult to mention here.

Ratnesh Maurya · Answer

Hi Rahul You can use JLCA a free tool from Microsoft that migrates Java code to C# .Net. After conversion you will face many compilation issues. We faced many issues related to streams and Regex enums etc. JLCA does all the straight forward conversions but it will take a substaintial effort to fix the compilation and runtime issues. The number of issues depends on the application you are migrating and java packages used. It comes integrated with VS 2005 or dowload it from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=46bea47e-d47f-4349-9b4f-904b0a973174&displaylang=en.