How to program for all 3 platforms at once

[Renegade]

Isn't this the purported goal of Mono?

-Deozaan (December 05, 2010, 04:34 PM)

This is the route that I'm going. But Java and RealBasic are also viable.

Some people are using Python for desktop software. Seen some and it looks ok.

I think the component market is one of the most important though. I'd rather buy functionality that performs better than I could do from experts in the field than fart around trying to half-ass it. C# and Java have good component markets, but I really don't know how the Java desktop component market is. Anyone know?

[def]

I've heard Adobe AIR mentioned a lot lately.  What code does it use?  Java?

-kyrathaba (December 14, 2010, 09:35 AM)

As far as I can tell, AIR supports different technologies, so the developer can use the one that he is most familar with:

• Flash Player (the developer can use Flash Builder, formerly known as Flex)
• HTML/CSS/JavaScript (rendered using the WebKit engine)
• PDF. However, I heard the PDF support in AIR is weak.

[CodeTRUCKER]

^ Just DL'ed the 30-day trial.

I'd be interested in hearing from anybody who uses it too.  

-40hz (December 06, 2010, 07:20 PM)

I downloaded too.  Looks pretty interesting, since I have a soft spot in my head, er, heart for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.  

I am glad they have a 90-day money back policy.    

It is also fairly expensive, , but one of the customers by the name of Jeff Ayling said, ""Love you guys - what a product! Your hard work now feeds my family!"

@Carol, please keep me in your loop.  I would be specifically interested in how it compares to VB, if you can comment. - Thanks.

[kyrathaba]

CodeTRUCKER, I'm interested in your experience.  Please report after you've fooled with it awhile  Also, I still think with your background in BASIC, the ideal next language for you would be Visual Basic .NET (freely available here).  You can do 99.9% of anything you can envision, programming-task-wise, perhaps with the exception of very intensive graphics programming (although .NET languages are supporting OpenGL and DirectX) and writing very low-level routines.

[steeladept]

I think the component market is one of the most important though. I'd rather buy functionality that performs better than I could do from experts in the field than fart around trying to half-ass it. C# and Java have good component markets, but I really don't know how the Java desktop component market is. Anyone know?

-Renegade (December 14, 2010, 07:18 PM)

I know that it exists, and that is kind of saying something since I am not a programmer - well not really anyway  .  I can't talk to the quality of it, however.  I have a few vendors that send me info on it at work because they know my company is a Java shop and they send their advertising to anyone who has an email in that domain.  It is annoying because I don't know how they got my email - my guess is I downloaded a white-paper or something - but they do stop when I send the request to stop, so I can't complain too much.  I just wish companies would stop advertising these white-papers that are just advertisements themselves, then force you to register just to find out that it is an advertisement.  I have stopped getting any white-papers I need to register for because of that.

[Renegade]

CodeTRUCKER, I'm interested in your experience.  Please report after you've fooled with it awhile   Also, I still think with your background in BASIC, the ideal next language for you would be Visual Basic .NET (freely available here).  You can do 99.9% of anything you can envision, programming-task-wise, perhaps with the exception of very intensive graphics programming (although .NET languages are supporting OpenGL and DirectX) and writing very low-level routines.

-kyrathaba (January 03, 2011, 06:11 PM)

+1 for VB.NET. It's quite nice to use.

Quite right about the low-level stuff. You simply can't do it in VB.NET. No pointers. C# is a better choice because it is possible, but depending on the application, plain C or ASM or something would be better.

VB.NET is a very forgiving language as well. If you're coming from Pascal-based languages, it will look somewhat familiar. (In the way that C# is 'familiar' for Java developers.)

[kyrathaba]

And... there is plenty of helpful material out there for learning, both in books and in free online material.

[Ron88888]

Interesting page at lifehacker.com:
http://lifehacker.co...g-beginners-for-free

Windows and Mac OS X: Hackety Hack is an application designed to teach complete beginners how to program in Ruby, eventually giving you the ability to create actual applications for the desktop and the web.
The Hackety Hack project also makes use of a GUI toolkit called Shoes, which lets you create desktop applications.
Hackety Hack will walk you through Ruby basics and have you creating simple apps quickly. The Shoes toolkit isn't just for making simple apps. Once you learn the basics that Hackety Hack will teach you, then you can start creating more complex apps (like Hackety Hack itself). If you're looking to get into programming and want to deploy cross-platform apps, Hackety Hack looks like a great way to get started. It's also free, open source software, so you can mess around with the source code should you feel so inclined.

In the comments, someone says:
Note: it does have experimental Linux support.

[mahesh2k]

Some better options than java-

BASIC  - Mono.net (Visualbasic.net), Gambas, Borlands basic(don't know where they are now)

Python - Ironpython(which works on all platforms with .NET framework)

C# - using mono

Wxwidgets is also used by some people to code cross-platform but learning curve is steep. QT has some license issues for commercial apps so no point in investing time with them.

Edit - ron, tested ruby shoes it's small GUI tookit and there isn't much in it. But for web based desktop apps can still be coded with it.

[Renegade]

Some better options than java-

BASIC  - Mono.net (Visualbasic.net), Gambas, Borlands basic(don't know where they are now)

Python - Ironpython(which works on all platforms with .NET framework)

C# - using mono

Wxwidgets is also used by some people to code cross-platform but learning curve is steep. QT has some license issues for commercial apps so no point in investing time with them.

Edit - ron, tested ruby shoes it's small GUI tookit and there isn't much in it. But for web based desktop apps can still be coded with it.

-mahesh2k (January 06, 2011, 01:07 AM)

QT allows licensing as LGPL, which is fine for commercial development.

[mahesh2k]

QT allows licensing as LGPL, which is fine for commercial development.

Does LGPL allows developers to restrict source-code distribution ? Sorry, i'm not much aware of it's legal sides.

[mwb1100]

QT allows licensing as LGPL, which is fine for commercial development.

Does LGPL allows developers to restrict source-code distribution ? Sorry, i'm not much aware of it's legal sides.

-mahesh2k (January 06, 2011, 01:21 AM)

LGPL allows you to release your program without having to distribute *your* source code.  However, you have to provide the source code for the LGPL bits (ie., the Qt library).  You also have to enable/allow people to modify, rebuild and relink the LGPL bits into the program.  Practically speaking, this means that you have to link to the LGPL stuff dynamically (using a DLL on Windows, or a shared library on Linux).  That way, end users could rebuild Qt and replace the DLL if they're so inclined.

[Jibz]

Just to add to the discussion:

http://blog.kowalczy...esktop-software.html

[CodeTRUCKER]

And here's another...

http://www.runrev.com

... and a little information in another post.