Re: Is there a cross platform language ? PC - Mac - Unix/Linux

From: Dave (recneps.w.divad_at_elcaro.moc)
Date: 04/08/04 

Date: Thu, 08 Apr 2004 16:02:21 +0100

Will wrote:
> If one wants to develope for the PC, Mac & Unix/Linux...
>
> Is there a true cross platform language & compiler ? (or will we have to
> write the code 3 times?)
>
> If so, is there a choice for developing GUIs with a Windows look & feel...
>
> And with full multi-media support ?
>
> Or, must we settle for a 'virtual' solution like Macromedia Flash ? (Which
> doesn't run on unix/linux... does it?) (Or maybe Python ???)
>
> Finally, is there a 'Visual Basic' type language that has compilers for
> these platforms with featurs and support as outlined above? What about C or
> C++. What other options?
>
> Thanks for any comments and suggestions.
>
>

The look and feel for the platforms you name are substantially
different. Macs have one mouse button. X-Windows doesn't have much
keyboard support built in, requiring programmer effort, so it doesn't
get put in or is vastly different from app to app. Whichever UI you
design for, users of the other two will notice your application feels
foreign.

There are plenty of cross platform languages provided you code
appropriately. C++ is perfectly good as a cross-platform development
language, and there are cross platform UI toolkits. I don't think there
are (m)any cross compilers though, you will probably need to generate
executables for each platform on each platform, although there should be
nothing to stop this being done automatically via scripting.

Asbestos suit donned, although let me point out to the Java fans that
Java+JNI is just as unportable as unportable C.

Dave.