Cross-platform priorities

[srod]

But ultimately, it makes better financial sense to code a program using some windows api commands if you have to and not even bother trying to make it cross platform compatible.

If you can only sell to 90% of computer users then that sounds good enough to me.

This is why I hate most developers, they only think about the profit they are going to make by feeding the users of an operating system, which has the largest market share compared to other operating systems. If they would develop cross-platform code or even highly portable code, then they would sell much better. It is not Windows that made RenderWare the most popular graphics engine which is even used on gaming consoles!! And it is used on gaming consoles because it is written in highly portable code! No (honestly f**king) Windows API >_<

Simple economics really.

I have never been concerned with making cross platform code and see no need to be at this time. Even if I wasn't programming for a living (in part) then I still wouldn't be looking anywhere but Windows. What can I say; I love the api. I'll make no apology for this.

[thefool]

I'll make no apology for this.

Save your apologies for the people you hit with your car..

Well i enjoy and hate the api at the same time. Earlier this year i had to program a connection between an atomic spectofotometre and a laptop (which also ran software by me) but even though i had been monitoring and analyzing the connection between the software following and the equipment, it was encrypted/encoded in some weird ways and the manual was not helpfull.

What then? I just open a connection to the software following which did a graph and read data from the machine at a specific interval and caught the data from memory, hence being able to process it and control the rest of the robot using my software..

For that type of weird hackings, the current api actually isn't all bad

[srod]

I'll make no apology for this.

Save your apologies for the people you hit with your car..

[Rook Zimbabwe]

But MAC is really just free BSD ain't it? Lump it together with the linux/unix group...

And what about the prehistoric group... they are not represented... I got fiends (friends) using Atari800XL computers here in Houston. The commodore 64 group is around... Amiga?

Most of the idiots that compile these statistics are not even aware any other OS exist... They are marketing geeks not computer nerds.

[Foz]

Mac has one (major) problem with it : Hardware. To develop for a mac, it has to be on a specially bought mac machine. Add in the PowerPC and Intel versions and you have an expensive headache on your hands.

To develop for windows/linux you just get it and install it on your pc that could be well over 5 years old (such as mine is) and they work very well.

As a developer, I focus on cross platform simply because I use Linux as my primary OS with a VMWare session into Win2k Pro for windows testing (I had to install windows xp yesterday on a new partition to get a new iPOD working - once Linux catches up, it's coming off ).

If I used windows only... I would probably not even consider the possibility of other OS's out there.

I am now considering getting an old Mac Mini G4 to try out my developments and make sure they work across all platforms (and so I can get rid of my WinXP partition).

[thefool]

now we are talking of apple anyway, this is REALLY interesting

http://gizmodo.com/343641/1960s-braun-p ... les-future

[Irene]

[..](I had to install windows xp yesterday on a new partition to get a new iPOD working :evil: - once Linux catches up, it's coming off :twisted:)[..]

While talking about operating systems and cross-platform, why do you keep the Apple firmware in your iPod if you could install an open source firmware like Rockbox? I have the infamous iPod 5G ("iPod Video") and Rockbox really makes it more usable; I can even listen to tracker music like MODs and XMs with an experimental module for Rockbox; it is cool!

http://www.rockbox.org/

[Foz]

That's an easy one: They don't do 3rd gen Nano's yet. I have to wait for Linux to catch up first.

[thefool]

How woul rockbox benefit me when i don't listen to tracker music?
Will it allow me to watch south park on the ipod (which i do allready with the apple os)?

[naw]

I use my Garmin SatNav as MP3 player, does everything an ipod will do without tieing me into proprietary formats or SW like itunes.

[Q*bert]

Great thread! I couldn't agree more with the OP.

Why does linux get second billing to windows when it comes to Purebasic?

I have been a windows user since Windows 3.1 (~1992.) I have tried several of the major linux distributions over the past few years. They still feel like something duct-taped together. I can't understand the fascination with linux, other than a way to avoid Microsoft.

I bought a Intel Mac about a year ago, and the ability to run both Windows and OS X at the same time is a treat. OS X is an elegant environment for the least experienced user to the most sophisticated developer. Windows has a wonderful software selection and nearly universal acceptance.

Has anyone here had any experience with Kylix? This was Borland's version of Delphi for linux. It worked well, and yet it was a complete and dismal economic failure. There aren't enough users of linux and of those who did use it, not enough willing to pay for a polished development tool.

Linux developers seem to be happy with the tools they have and are unwilling to support anything but open source. OS X developers have the Apple's free XCode tools (very good, but demanding learning curve) and Realbasic (ugh!) We need and want Purebasic with native Intel support.

Fred, please, please look at the economics of changing your Purebasic development emphasis. Windows first, OS X a strong second, and linux a distant third, if at all...

[pdwyer]

I wonder how PB know what % of their customers are on which platform?

When I read the thread above, my first thought was "Well, PB probably have more customers on platform X, no matter the global OS distribution" but then remembered that you buy one license and you get all OS compilers so how do they know what percent of there customers use what OS?

Possibly more than OS's used by people in generaly they would want to put effort into where their customers are (unless there is a specific push to broaden their userbase on a some OS).... But how can they know what their userbase uses? Could they create a piechart with the distribution? Maybe it's 90% linux but the windows people are bigger on the forums (doubtful but how can you know for sure).

Also, How would they know if their OSX users are increasing compared to other OS's or not?

But then, perhaps purebasic is more of a side business/hobby than a company that sifts through sales report trends and they don't really mind either way! (this is not a criticism, mind you)

[Elsa]

Kylix failed because it was a major catastrophe. The UI frankensteined together with WineLib didn't work well and on many distributions you had to invest a lot of work just to get that darn thing to start and even then, it was still full of bugs and emulation caused ide problems. Plus, delphi is about extension modules, which are very widespread on Windows but of course incompatible with Kylix.

As for the mindset of typical Linux users.... if you come from a unix background, windows feels duct taped either. It is more about lack of familiarity that causes this feeling. I get it whenever is see the Win 3.11 fontinstaller Dialog living a sad zombie life even up today in Windows Vista, or see Software stop working because of some stupid driveletter issue after you changed Harddisk configuration. What is it with those weird drive letters anyway?