Cross platform programming [closed]

Answer 1

Have a look at the QT Library and tools

Answer 2

If you can write the program using only the standard C libraries, then theoretically it should already be cross-platform compatible, as the C library itself is designed to be totally portable. That said, you're going to run into issues with sockets, which unless I'm mistaken are usually implementation specific.

Linux (ubuntu especially) isn't really that hard to use, but the lack of a real IDE for development usually throws folks off. What I recommend is that you compile using Cygwin for windows, and try out a code editor called CodeBlocks while you do this. Cygwin will compile your code against linux libraries instead of windows ones (and then emulate those libraries using a windows .dll when you run it) so it's a good way to become familiar with your limitations. You should be able to set up a CodeBlocks project under windows, and then open that same project under the Linux version of CodeBlocks and test out your compile.

Cross-platform code isn't terribly easy to write, I admit, but it's more than possible with a bit of effort.

Answer 3

Both Windows and Unix-style platforms offer Berkeley Sockets APIs, but Windows implementation has some differences, e.g. the use of WSAStartup() and WSACleanup() functions. Other than that, a few #ifdefs and the application will compile on both platforms without any problems. Assuming it's supposed to be a simple command-line app of course. There's a section Porting Socket Applications to Winsock on MSDN. All you have to do is to work backwards. ;)

Also read a book on socket programming, for example Beej's Guide to Network Programming.

Another option is to use Boost::Asio. This hides any sockets API differences very smoothly.

Answer 4

If it don't use Windows API specific code or non-cross-platform libraries, and if it's standard C++ - if it don't use microsoft compiler specific features - then it should be cross platform and work on linux.

The compiler provided with linux is called GCC. There is a Windows version called MinGW . You could try it before trying on linux. If it compiles on MinGW, it will certainly compile on Linux. (The problem is MinGW is not up to date with the last versions of GCC...)

For usage of libraries that are not cross-platform (maybe GUI libraries), yous will have to change them, but most of the non OS-specific GUI libraries are cross-platform anyway. For other libraries, you'll find equivalent ones on other platforms I guess.

Answer 5

I agree with others that if you install something like Ubuntu Linux, it's not that hard to learn. But to answer your actual question, the main issue is to avoid using Windows APIs unintentionally. My favorite environment for this is the AT&T U/Win toolset, which is designed for compiling POSIX apps on windows. It seems to generate fewer complaints from developers than mingw, which in turn generates fewer complaints than cygwin.

Answer 6

Rather than cut and paste, divide your project into platform agnostic files and platform specific files and/or use preprocessor directives to customize the code. Most of my work is for Windows, and it's nice to use it as a test bed for the Linux stuff using tools that are familiar.