Developer's path to Windows/*NIX multi-platform?

[Mike Hearn]

On Thu, 01 Apr 2004 17:39:14 -0500, Dimitrie O. Paun wrote:
>> Do you think Wine is the way to go for me, or am I
>> better off writing individual versions and keeping the Windows software
>> native and then producing QT or GTK versions for *NIX? I'm at a cross-roads
>> here, since I'll be dedicating years of work in whatever direction I take.

<morpheus> What is native? </morpheus>

I'd say a native app is one that feels like it was written for the
platform. That normally means, native UI, good desktop integration, that
sort of thing (in a desktop app).

WineLib is a great way to do this. Pure WineLib apps will not feel native,
because you're using a clone of the win32 widget set - suck it up ;)
However, WineLib lets you use a native toolkit like GTK+ *and* keep using
the same code that you use elsewhere for doing the actual work of the app.
For instance, you don't have to rewrite code to use malloc vs HeapAlloc -
if you app uses COM you can still do that, if you use the win32 multimedia
functions etc, you can keep that. 

This means you can produce a program that LOOKS and FEELS native in much
less time than would otherwise be required (ie you don't need to rewrite
all the code). It also lets you break it up into chunks and port one at a
time - for teams without a lot of resources this is a valuable thing
indeed.

thanks -mike