Microsoft apparently will keep either pretending that Java is nothing to worry about or will keep trying to get developers to drop it altogether. Looking amongst descriptions of educational sessions planned for next week’s Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles, I sought out anything resembling an olive branch to the Java developer community. All I could find was this one session: “Migrating Java Applications to the .Net Framework”“Learn to get the most out of your Java applications by converting them to target the .NET Framework! Explore the conversion of Java-language source code to Visual J#, migration of Java-language source code to Visual C# using the improved Java Language Conversion Assistant v2.0 (JLCA), Java applet conversion to Visual J# Browser Controls, and more. Hear about the strategies for identifying and removing dependencies on the retired Microsoft Java Virtual Machine.”What about integrating with Java applications, or, dare I say it, writing Java applications for the Windows platform? Nope. The session on migrating away from Java was the only session I could find that even notes the existence of the popular and pervasive, albeit rival, programming language. Microsoft’s Adam Sohn, product manager with Microsoft’s Platform Strategy group, said in an interview Wednesday that the company recognizes heterogeneity is here to stay and wants to accommodate multiple languages. But he said he was unaware of anything specific to Java that would be covered at next week’s conference other than the migration session.Wouldn’t it be a good idea for the world’s leading PC software vendor to be a little more accommodating to the Java community? Perhaps Microsoft believes its substantial might means it can just treat Java like a 500-pound gorilla in the middle of the living room that everyone knows is there but just doesn’t want to talk about?Yes, Java founder Sun Microsystems and Microsoft have been involved in a nasty lawsuit over Java. But Java is not just Sun. It is backed by many vendors and many developers. Some, in fact, believe that close Microsoft ally IBM is doing more these days with Java than Sun. Something tells me that accommodation and acceptance of Java may be better for developers than keeping heads in the sand. Technology Industry