I was developing programs for HPUX and visual studio between 1999 and 2002. I was such a pain that I have done my best (with success) to never code again in this language. By their very poor support of C++, I think that they have contributed a lot to the success of java.
This was actually a reason for Java's success in the enterprise.
Finally a OO language with proper use of Strings, exceptions, classes and available library, without having to litter your code with #ifdefs to manage portability across compiler vendors and operating systems.
Or reducing yourself to the common subset usually available, which has a bit hard to have across C and C++ compilers around 1996.
Nowadays we know better, but it was surely a reason among many others, for Java's success.
I state this, because I saw it happen live in the trenches back in the day.
