What's the big deal with cross-platform?

I continue to read messages here about how Delphi should be cross-
platform, or should be able to produce the executable that someone
requires on their desired platform, but I always wonder why?

Native Win32 Delphi apps work just great. That's just so long as you
have put enough effort into making sure that everything works in XP,
W2K, Win95, and that you play nicely with all of the API issues related
to which registry keys you can write to, and make sure that you don't
ever assume that the Program Files directory is called C:\Program Files.

I haven't spent much time with .Net. I spent just enough there to
discover that no matter what tool I used, I still couldn't write an app
in ANY language that would work both on my desktop computer and
whichever mobile device I had to target that day.

If you try to work with the web, then which browsers are you going to
target? and in what language?

Things have gotten much better now since the Microsoft dominance in
the browser market has subsided somewhat, and I can now view most pages
in my preferred browser (Opera), but the rise of Firefox still has
plenty of people writing code that only works with IE and FF. Who are
they?

I would like to be able to write apps in Delphi that work on all
flavours of Windows, all flavours of Mac OS, and all flavours of Linux,
but I reckon that I would spend more time working on compatiblity than
functionality, so the end result would be compatible but non-functional.

I think that it is great that we can use database servers like
Firebird and Interbase that will run on all sorts of operating systems,
but these babies are only trying to fiddle with disk and memory
performance (and the odd algortihm) whereas we regular Delphi developers
are trying to figure out the best way to present the data to the end-
users who are typically our customers.

The way that Delphi programmers go about doing their jobs usually
involves either providing some sort of data entry system, or some sort
of data presentation system. Delphi is good at both of those, and can
remain good at both of them without even considering cross-platform hi-
jinks.

Since the beginning, Delphi has been able to use dll expertise
provided by expert 3rd parties, and has been able to reciprocate by
making ActiveX controls easy to write for consumption by VB fans.

IMHO, cross-platform is a crock. You will never be able to identify
the right combination of platforms to keep everyone happy.

A native 64 bit compiler would be nice, but does it really make that
much difference?

If it does, then why not write the stuff that is so dependant in a
language that does support 64 bit processing, and link to it with
regular 32 bit Delphi?

I have trouble enough trying to understand my neighbour's teenaged
sons. Even though we both use English as a spoken language, the
variations between their and my dialects are sometimes just so great
that understanding goes out the window. (Of course, I still have that
great fall-back: Get off my lawn!).

I think that it is great to use weakly-typed and interpreted languages
where appropriate, but Delphi isn't one of them. Sure Delphi can use
weakly-typed stuff, but does it really help in the cross-platform
scenario?

All of your thoughts are welcome.

Scout
.

Relevant Pages

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