[Lazarus] cross platform [Re: Lazarus Goal]

[Martin]

Bee Jay wrote:
>>> 'Lazarus and Free Pascal aim to be write once, compile anywhere for 
>>> those
>>> programs which only use the supported operating system features that 
>>> share a
>>> common design'.
>>
>> And I would've thought that this was obvious. There are just some
>> things you cannot abstract/emulate.
>
> Exactly. Even those platforms don't have same thought about what is 
> "common". What Java does is nothing more than standarized the "common" 
> things within its own environment. But, whether it's common to the 
> native platform, it's very much questionable. Obviously he can't see 
> the obvious.
>
Well the understanding of cross platform is quite varying. The base 
obviously is that "one source code" can be executed on all of the 
supported platforms.

On top of this, there are at least 2 different understanding:
1) the application looks/feels like any application on that platform, it 
uses the platforms widgets, and the guidelines for the platform.
This means that the qpplication will look and feel different on every 
platform

2) The application looks and ffels the same on all platforms. It 
completely ignores the guidelines and standards of the platform


1) is what the LCL aims for. It is more enduser friendly, but requires 
more work by the developper
2) is what Java and fpgui (and afaik msegui) aim for. It is easier for 
the developper. But the enduser will find an application that is 
different to any other app he runs on his PC (and therefore harder to use)


Martin