John Hill <nemo@erewhon.invalid> wrote:

> Do recent developments make it easier or harder to write software that
> is useable across a number of platforms?

Easier: Java.


> I can see that it might be
> possible to write software that would run under OSX and UNIX, but what
> about the user interface? Unless it was very basic, this was always
> the
> b****r.

It remains that way; you can tell a Java GUI a mile off cos it looks
like arse on every platform.

However, modern apps tend to be written in distinct "layers", typically
the data (in a database or a file), the "mechanics" (the code that
actually does the processing of the data) and the interface itself. It's
called an n-tier architecture if you want to look it up. 

Given a well-designed app you can (relatively) easily rip out one of
these layers and replace them with other implementations. So using
platform-agnostic technologies like Java and MySQL for the mechanics and
data, you could port an app to another platform by ripping out the UI
for the source platform and whacking on a UI for the new platform.

In theory, anyway.

Stuff like HandBrake is a good example of this. The code - ffmpegX, IIRC
- is from Linux or something, but they've slapped a proper, Mac-native
GUI on top.

    -zoara-




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