User interface design
To design an application that will be deployed effectively
on more than one platform, you need to become familiar with the
conventions and culture of all the target platforms.
Style guides
The platforms PowerBuilder runs on have style guides that document
the manufacturer’s view of good application design. The
following books will help you learn about each platform’s
preferred application style:
- The Windows
Interface Guidelines for Software Design: An Application Design
Guide
, available from Microsoft Press - OSF/Motif Style Guide
,
produced by the Open Software Foundation and published by Prentice
Hall
Strategies
To produce an application that meets users’ expectations
on all platforms, you can minimize use of elements in the user interface
that are different on different platforms.
You can also use coding techniques to change the behavior
of the application based on the current platform. You can use inheritance
to create windows designed for each platform, and you can use the
GetEnvironment function in scripts to determine the current platform
and execute code specific to the platform.
See “Executing code for
specific platforms “.