Re: cross platform development
linux4bene@pandora.be sez:
} following the game development thread made me think on crossplatform
} programming (linux and windows for instance). For instance, if one was
} going to make a project that runs on both platforms and can be worked
} on from both platforms, and you don't want to use java and revert to
} c++, how could you accomplish such a thing?
}
} Tools:
} -Version control: CVS works on both platforms so this isn't an issue.
CVS is a beautiful thing.
} -IDE: I can't think of an ide that is crossplatform. A free one for
} windows is Dev-C++. A don't know of a good one under linux since i
} haven't used linux yet to develop c++ code in.
Hmm, well, I'm a bit of a purist. I like vim and make for my "IDE."
} Source code:
} -The gui library used would have to be crossplatform. The one i've
} looked at so far is wxWindows. Other good ones?
It depends on your goals. If you want to develop commercially and are
willing to pay a licensing fee, I highly recommend Qt. It has its kludgy
bits (like requiring code generation to do some type-matching magic
which, unfortunately, gives runtime warnings rather than compile-time
errors and, also, can't resolve typedefs or type scoping), but I find
its API exceptionally intuitive and consistent. Furthermore, it is a
full-fledged cross-platform framework, layering away platform-specific
networking, database support, filesystems, etc. Qt supports X11,
Windows, MacOS X, and embedded platforms.
It is also my understanding that GTK+, while used extensively under X11,
also has a Windows port. I'm afraid I don't know much about it. I've
also heard good things about Zoo (ZooLib?), but I also don't know much
about it.
} I'm just wondering if this is feasable both for business applications
} and games. Anybody working on such a project?
I am writing and designing a simulator and GUI for the Navy which is
being developed under Linux (Debian and RedHat, due to some political
differences in the development group). We are using Qt for our GUI code,
in good part because we must be able to port to Windows at a later date.
Licensing issues are largely irrelevant (the Navy can afford a Qt
license if and when it becomes necessary; the simulator source, since it
is unclassified and was developed by the government, will be public
domain).
I will mention that we have a heterogeneous development platform (Debian
and RedHat are minimally different from the user end, but one of us uses
emacs, on uses vim (me), one uses pico/nano (gah!), and one will
probably wind up using gedit. Still, CVS and clear coding standards
keeps us together.
--Greg
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