On Sat, 01 Jan 2011 12:25:14 -0700, Bob Melson <amia9018@mypacks.net> wrote: >On Friday 31 December 2010 22:18, Matthew Combs (MattCombs@triad.rr.com) >opined: > >> On Dec 31 2010, 6:07 pm, Bob Melson <amia9...@mypacks.net> wrote: >>> >>> I have a major hang up about software that is written exclusively for a >>> specific operating environment, particularly in the "civilian" world of >>> desktop computing.  I will grant that M$ "owns" more than 90% of the >>> desktop - and won't give my opinion about _that_ - but I refuse to >>> contaminate my computer with Windows just to be able to run this >>> application or any other that is M$-centric.  I contend that there are >>> enough architecture-neutral tools (scripting languages, language >>> compilers, network protocols, etc) out in the wild that good, >>> multi-platform software can be written almost painlessly. > >But there ARE tools, many of them free, that make it possible to write >software that isn't restricted to a single operating system or, even, a >single version of that operating system. Those tools generally provide a >well documented interface to the underlying system and remove the need to >specify something like .net or a reliance on a single operating system; >java, perl and php all come to mind. Look at TNG or phpGedView, gdbi or >genealogyJ as examples of programs that'll run everywhere, given the >appropriate runtime interpreter (also free) on the user's machine. Using >an architecturally neutral set of tools relieves you of the need to worry >about whether this version of M$'s "foo" or that of Apple's "bar" will do >the job - you write to the API and let the Java (or perl or php) >interpreter worry about making that net connect or drawing that graphic. >You can concentrate on the what and not the how, so to speak, which might >result in a better product but will certainly result in one that everybody >can use. > >And that was my point. > >Bob All the software I give away (samples here: http://www.jecarter.us/ but nothing genealogy related) was written for some specific platform (Windows, Palm, WinCE) because that was the envronment for which I had purchased tools for a consulting job. So far, all those tools have been Wndows based. I don't use Macs (never did like the Gestapplo - and "You're holding the phone wrong" confirmed that name) and I only use Linux as a Windows repair tool (bootable CDs). If cross-platform development is as easy as you imply, what have you written and given away? John

On Saturday 01 January 2011 13:54, news@jecarter.us (news@jecarter.us) opined: <snip> > All the software I give away (samples here: http://www.jecarter.us/ > but nothing genealogy related) was written for some specific platform > (Windows, Palm, WinCE) because that was the envronment for which I had > purchased tools for a consulting job. So far, all those tools have > been Wndows based. I don't use Macs (never did like the Gestapplo - > and "You're holding the phone wrong" confirmed that name) and I only > use Linux as a Windows repair tool (bootable CDs). > > If cross-platform development is as easy as you imply, what have you > written and given away? > > John John, I must shamefacedly admit I haven't done anything in the public domain - as in for genealogy or, for lack of a better term, hobby computing. In my prior incarnation as a wage-slave programmer, though, I wrote a number of cross platform applications for my employer that ran quite happily on versions of UNIX and the windows of the day. The tool used was perl, which is available free for all major platforms/operating systems, and incorporated graphics, networking and database access. I've never been particularly comfortable with java and mention it only because there are geni applications I'm familiar with and use that're written using it and that run successfully on any platform for which there's a java runtime. Software development is never particularly easy, unless you're writing another iteration of "hello, world". And I don't mean to suggest that it is. What I do suggest is that a lot of the scut work involved can be avoided through the use of the APIs found in most architecturally neutral tools, such as perl or java or php. That way the application programmer can concentrate on writing the code to do what he envisions (the what), rather than waste time worrying about how to interface to the network or graphics or any other subsystem (the how). I would suggest that's a worthwhile objective, no matter whether the application is for personal, public domain or commercial use. Bob -- Robert G. Melson | Rio Grande MicroSolutions | El Paso, Texas ----- The greatest tyrannies are always perpetrated in the name of the noblest causes -- Thomas Paine