Cross platform tools

[mrniceguy1971]

I am interested in cross platform tools for desktop, web and mobiles and would like to know if anyone has experience with RunRev, Realbasic, WinDev etc.

[mskuma]

This is of interest to me too. It's kinda like the holy grail of development - do it once, and have a compiler emit various solutions to compile (or better still run directly) for target platforms. The 'problem' is I think nearly all these tools are in its infantcy at present (I put problem in quotes, because the whole industry of Android/iOs & web apps are relatively new in this space so have to be realistic about cross-compiler tools). I tried Real Studio for web - interesting concept, but honestly I think it was rushed out the door - has rough edges, and deployment is a pain. It was recently upgraded so that really means it's finally a v1.0 now. I think a great measure of a tool is to visit its forum - lots of gripes = problems. Have a look at RS's forum & Morfik (promising 'web app' dev tool). Developers are almost screaming there (particularly the latter). I've started to look at RunRev, and to me it's the most promising if you can deal with the hypercard metaphor, learning it's new 'English-like' programming language, and it's expense (plus buying up extra modules). I hadn't heard of WinDev so I quickly checked the site - the first thing that strikes me is the sheer massive volume of docs (e.g. 76 page online brochure & 508 page tutorial doc laced with photos of pretty women & a programming lang in both French & English!). The programming language reminds me of RunRev's livecode. To me RunRev seems to be almost there with true cross-compiler situation (though you still need a Mac to compile iOs apps) & seems to have an enthusiastic community. I think you'll find it a bit tricky to make a decision right now (for various reasons) and either decide to bite the bullet with one of those & struggle, or pick a purpose-platform tool for one situation, and maybe make a go of one platform to start with. One thing I've found is you come back to appreciate the cleanness of the PB language. I hope Fred et all are considering there next step with something like mobile products or cross-compilations like runrev etc. It's potentially a good future direction for PB, but have to be quick - as the others like runrev seem to be taking this market.

[the.weavster]

REALbasic doesn't currently do mobile, the CEO has blogged about a possible future version that would compile for iOS but he said that's not going to be any time soon.

Have you looked at GL Basic? It's primarily for games but it does have a little widget set called DD-Gui, although it is quite limited. It can currently compile for Linux, Windows, Mac, iOS, webOS, WinCE, Windows Mobile, Pandora, GP2X-Wiz and the developer is currently attempting to extend that range to include Android.

The syntax is really good and so is the forum, it's definitely worth a look.

Another option to consider may be Flash, there's a really good free open source Flash compiler called haXe and a pretty comprehensive GUI library called ASWing which you might want to take a look at.

[mrniceguy1971]

Thanks for the info.

GL Basic and Haxe looks interesting. I will check it out.

[Lost]

I stumbled upon Monkey a little while ago (via a post here on the forum):
http://monkeycoder.co.nz/

Looks very interesting!

[mrniceguy1971]

It is certainly interesting. Will take a look at it.

[netmaestro]

Mark Sibly is behind Monkey, a good solid developer and I can vouch for his integrity. You can't go wrong giving this a try imho.

[the.weavster]

Monkey looks good too but as somebody who is interested in having a first go at games GLBasic looks better to me. Sprite rotation and pixel perfect collision detection seem a breeze in GLBasic where as rotation in the Monkey tutorial looks confusing and I'm not really sure it can do pixel perfect collision detection.

Also you can ask questions in the GLBasic forum BEFORE handing over your money.