From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Dec 12 00:08:20 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 57A9216A4D6 for ; Sun, 12 Dec 2004 00:08:20 +0000 (GMT) Received: from smtp102.rog.mail.re2.yahoo.com (smtp102.rog.mail.re2.yahoo.com [206.190.36.80]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id BD83443D58 for ; Sun, 12 Dec 2004 00:08:19 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from Mike.Jeays@rogers.com) Received: from unknown (HELO ?192.168.2.100?) (mjeays2551@24.114.152.139 with plain) by smtp102.rog.mail.re2.yahoo.com with SMTP; 12 Dec 2004 00:08:19 -0000 From: Mike Jeays To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain Organization: Message-Id: <1102810098.889.8.camel@chaucer> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Ximian Evolution 1.2.4 Date: 11 Dec 2004 19:08:18 -0500 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Writing multi-platform applications X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 12 Dec 2004 00:08:20 -0000 Apologies if this is a bit off topic. I have been pushing the idea at work that we should write all applications so that they are OS-agnostic. They should work equally well (as far as that is possible...) on both the Windows platform, and any reasonable Unix. I have quoted as good examples OpenOffice, GIMP, Apache, MySQL, as proofs that it can be done. This seems a good way to preserve our investment in home-grown software. At present we are facing significant costs in migrating 25-year old applications off our IBM mainframe, and we often need such long lifetimes. What libraries and other methods are used to ensure this works with minimal changes in highly graphical applications such as OpenOffice? Can anyone direct me useful places to research it further? Thanks in advance.