- Simple DirectMedia Layer "An open source cross-platform multimedia library written in C that creates an abstraction over various platforms" graphics, sound, and input APIs.(More...)
Simple DirectMedia Layer "An open source cross-platform multimedia library written in C that creates an abstraction over various platforms" graphics, sound, and input APIs. It runs on many operating systems including Linux, Windows and Mac OS X and is aimed at games and multimedia applications. Cairo "A free software library used to provide a vector graphics-based, device-independent API. It is designed to provide primitives for 2-dimensional drawing across a number of different backends.
[1] In order for software to be considered cross-platform, it must be able to function on more than one computer architecture or operating system. This can be a time-consuming task given that different operating systems have different application programming interfaces or APIs (for example, Linux uses a different API for application software than Windows does).
[1] Software can be ported to a new computer architecture or operating system so that the program becomes more cross-platform than it already is. A program such as Firefox, which already runs on Windows on the x86 family, can be modified and re-built to run on Linux on the x86 (and potentially other architectures) as well.
[1] In the context of binary software, cross-platform programs are written in the source code and then "translated" to each system that it runs on through compiling it on different platforms.
[1] As an alternative to porting, cross-platform virtualization allows applications compiled for one CPU and operating system to run on a system with a different CPU and/or operating system, without modification to the source code or binaries.
[1] Some applications mix various methods of cross-platform programming to create the final application. An example of this is the Firefox web browser, which uses abstraction to build some of the lower-level components, separate source subtrees for implementing platform specific features (like the GUI), and the implementation of more than one scripting language to help facilitate ease of portability.
[1] Mono (and more specifically, Microsoft.NET )"A cross-platform framework for applications and programming languages. This allows for the creation of applications that compile and run under Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and other uses (Sun OS, AIX, HP-UX, 32/64 bit, SMP).
[1] A cross-platform application may run on Microsoft Windows on the x86 architecture, Linux on the x86 architecture and Mac OS X on either the PowerPC or x86 based Apple Macintosh systems.
[1] Probably the most familiar platform is Microsoft Windows running on the x86 architecture. Other well-known desktop computer platforms include Linux and Mac OS X (both of which are themselves cross-platform). There are, however, many devices such as cellular telephones that are also effectively computer platforms but less commonly thought about in that way.
[1] Runtime Revolution "a proprietary IDE, compiler engine and CGI builder that cross compiles to Windows, Mac OS X ( PPC, Intel ), Linux, Solaris, BSD, and Irix. Code::Blocks "A free/open source, cross platform IDE. It is developed in C++ using wxWidgets. Using a plugin architecture, its capabilities and features are defined by the provided plugins.
[1] XVT is a cross-platform toolkit for creating enterprise and desktop applications in C/C++ on Windows, Linux and Unix (Solaris, HPUX, AIX), and Mac.
[1] ParaGUI "ParaGUI is a cross-platform high-level application framework and GUI library. It can be compiled on various platforms(Linux, Win32, BeOS, Mac OS,. ).
[1] Cross-platform programming is the practice of actively writing software that will work on more than one platform.
[1] Cross-platform is a term that can also apply to video games. Such games are released on a range of video game consoles and handheld game consoles, which are specialized computers dedicated to the task of playing games (and thus, are a platform as any other computer).
[1] A script can be considered to be cross-platform if the scripting language is available on multiple platforms and the script only uses the facilities provided by the language.
[1] A user attempting to use a limited-feature browser to access Gmail may notice that Gmail switches to "Basic Mode," with reduced functionality. Some view this strategy as a lesser form of cross-platform capability. Separation of functionality attempts to simply omit those subsets of functionality that are not capable from within certain client browsers or operating systems, while still delivering a "complete" application to the user. (see also Separation of concerns ).
[1] Web applications are typically described as cross-platform because, ideally, they are accessible from any of various web browsers within different operating systems. Such applications generally employ a client-server system architecture, and vary widely in complexity and functionality. This wide variability significantly complicates the goal of cross-platform capability, which is routinely at odds with the goal of advanced functionality.
[1] All user interaction with the application consists of simple exchanges of data requests and server responses. These types of applications were the norm in the early phases of World Wide Web application development. Such applications follow a simple transaction model, identical to that of serving static web pages. Today, they are still relatively common, especially where cross-platform compatibility and simplicity are deemed more critical than advanced functionality.
[1] Because of the competing interests of cross-platform compatibility and advanced functionality, numerous alternative web application design strategies have emerged.
[1] One complicated aspect of cross-platform web application design is the need for software testing.
[1] If Disney licenses the game with Sony first, Disney may be required to only release the game on Sony"s console for a short time, or indefinitely"effectively prohibiting the game from cross-platform at least for a period of time.
[1] Some games may not become cross-platform because of licensing agreements between the developers and the maker of the video game console which state that the game will only be made for one particular console.
[1] Testing cross-platform applications may also be considerably more complicated, since different platforms can exhibit slightly different behaviors or subtle bugs. This problem has led some developers to deride cross-platform development as "Write Once, Debug Everywhere", a take on Sun"s "Write Once, Run Anywhere" marketing slogan.
[1] Different platforms often have different user interface conventions, which cross-platform applications do not always accommodate.
[1] Cross-platform applications can also be built using proprietary IDEs, or so-called Rapid Application Development tools.
[1] Lazarus (software) "Lazarus is a cross platform Visual IDE developed for and supported by the open source Free Pascal compiler. It aims to provide a Rapid Application Development Delphi Clone for Pascal and Object Pascal developers.
[1] Open source and business-friendly, Tcl is a mature yet evolving language that is truly cross platform, easily deployed and highly extensible.
[1] GTK+ "An open source widget toolkit for Unix-like systems with X11 and Microsoft Windows. FLTK "Another open source cross platform toolkit, but more light weight because it restricts itself to the GUI.
[1] A cross-platform application may run on as many as all existing platforms, or on as few as two platforms.
[1] Third party libraries attempt to simplify cross-platform capability by "hiding" the complexities of client differentiation behind a single, unified API.
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