Devising a cross-platform strategy
The cross-platform approach recommended here is to take differences
among platforms into account as you design your windows and user
objects–rather than designing and completing an application
for one platform and then fixing it when you move it to another
platform.
Adaptable windows and scripts
By understanding the differences in the appearance of controls,
fonts, and other visual elements, you can design windows that look
good on all platforms. By writing scripts that make changes in behavior
based on the current platform when the application is running, you
create code that runs successfully on all target platforms.
Areas to evaluate
Areas to evaluate for cross-platform differences include:
- User interface design,
including layout, window behavior, and fonts - Menu commands and shortcut keys
- Mouse buttons and coding for mouse events
- Accessibility of the DBMS from each platform
- Providing online Help
- Compatibility of external function libraries
- Availability of features
Most application features are supported on every platform.
But a few are platform specific. For example, support for OLE, DDE,
and MAPI is not available on UNIX.