Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with cross-platform

Bridging the OSS cross-platform gap.

I EAT TAPAS — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 08:01:16 -0800

Firefox seems like the odd man out, being a GUI application that is not just open-source but also compiles and runs on Windows, Mac OS and Linux -- consistently and equally well. What other GUI-based applications that are like this; being open-source and that support all three platforms natively? Note that I'm curious about OSS GUI apps like Firefox that compile into multiple platform-specific binaries that can run in a stock install of the OS. I realize there are ways around this -- X11 implementations and Cygwin for Windows, emulators like WINE for Linux and Mac OS, web applications that require a web server and separate browser, or VMs like VMWare and Parallels that assist with cross-platform operation. I'm looking for apps that have the magic "built-in".

Whittle down my Palm to a Thumb?

bartleby — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 10:40:13 -0800

Cross-platform, portable PIM? Not wearing a winter coat anymore, I find my Palm T|X is larger than I want to carry. XP at work. OSX at home. Lots to keep track of, want to keep in sync both places.

So I've been using a Palm T|X with Palm Desktop in both places. There are some small hassles in differences between the Palm software for each OS, but they're manageable.

But lately I've been using a flash drive for PortableApps a lot, and finding that it's pretty cool, and it might be a smaller, easier to carry alternative to carrying the Palm back and forth every day. I'm finding that I don't update it on the fly as much as I thought I would, so just a portable PIM would work fine.

BUT...PortableApps doesn't work for OSX.

SO I either need

a) a portable app that's cross-platform (I can handle not being able to use the rest of the PortableApps functionality on OSX as long as I can drill down to a usable PIM app on the flash drive somewhere)

OR

b) a way to run the Portable Apps suite on OSX without spending tons of time/money on Virtual PC, etc. (The Mac is PowerPC, so no Parallels, dual-boot, etc possible.)

OR something I don't even know about yet, that y'all can suggest.

Anyone?

P.S. A piggyback on this - I could probably be convinced to keep carrying the Palm every day if I could find a way to use my Palm to watch the videos I get from my Mac's Democracy player. If there's a way to watch Ask a Ninja on my commute, it might be worth the bulging pockets.

How to develop for Mac and PC

Turtles all the way down — Fri, 26 May 2006 13:39:53 -0800

How do I get a cross platform (Mac/PC) application developed? I've previously written an application using the scripting language of a cross platform database program. For various reasons it's getting difficult to continue down that path so now I'm thinking of raising some money to hire some 'real' programmers to do it right. What I can see right away as a problem is the market for this application is about 60%/40% Windows/Mac and I don't want to ignore either platform. So what do I do--develop it for one OS and port it to the other? Should I use something like Java? Any advice on this specific issue as well as on the other pitfalls that doubtless await me will be most appreciated.

Command-line MP3 Players, cross-platform.

Ogre Lawless — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:17:23 -0800

Programmer seeks command-line, cross-platorm MP3/Other format Player for Win32, Linux, for scripting, cuddling. I'm trying to develop a larger application suite that needs MP3 support and while the rest of my apps are cross-platform, I'm having a devil of a time finding a command-line player that will work on both Linux AND Windows. Closest I ever came was the mostly defunct mpg123 which doesn't seem to be actively developing against Win32 and had a fair number of Windows issues when I last used it.

I'd like to keep the overhead at a minimum -- optimally the device is headless, networkless and plugs into speakers and thats it.

Barring a cross-platform approach, I'd be willing to bend to just a GUI-less win32 command-line platform.

put on your cross-platform shoes

yonation — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 07:13:38 -0800

what can you tell me about quark xpress and cross-platform (specifically, windows and mac) problems, "features," tips, etc? i've been asked to help out with some of the graphic design at my job, which has so far been done on the mac. i have the latest quark and acrobat professional on my home (XP) machine; and aside from smaller issues such as fonts, what are some things to look out for? can i expect a pretty fluid cross-platform dynamic, as i will be sending quark files back and forth with the other designer? What about printing purposes (ie what are the best settings for PDF on acrobat 7/quark xpress passport 6.5)? any other suggestions, help? thank you in advance

remote Jukebox Control?

cathodeheart — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 20:36:32 -0800

Looking for a way to control an instance of winamp (or similar media player) running on a PC from an iBook, via existing Wireless network... so here's the deal: i have a PC laptop (win xp sp2)hooked up to a mixer/speakers, which is where i play most of my music. i'd like to be able to control that laptop, or at least the jukebox program on that laptop, from my iBook (os x 10.4). the computers are wirelessly networked already, i'm just wondering if there's a program that will allow that kind of access. i'd like to be able to cue up tracks, browse files, and use the transport control, at the most basic level. sort of like having a virtual remote control for my PC media player program on my iBook. Any suggestions?

How to load new documents in a single instance of SciTE

furtive — Thu, 17 Mar 2005 14:20:30 -0800

I've decided to move on from my favourite UltraEdit to the up and coming SciTE. However, I have one annoying "feature" that's stopping me from falling in love with SciTE. I have yet to figure out how to stop it from creating separate instances when loading multiple documents. On Windows platforms, I've noticed that if I use the "Right Click" plugin or the classic Send To... trick that SciTE creates a separate instance each time I use it (opening one document at a time). I want each document loaded to show up in a single instance as a new tab, but so far have only been able to do that when loading a document from directly inside SciTE. Any suggestions?

Can Safari work with Sharepoint?

mkultra — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 07:35:38 -0800

Is it possible to configure MS Sharepoint to allow access from the Safari web browser? I can access it just fine from the Mac with IE and Firefox, neither of which are officially supported by my company. We've standardized on Safari, but the Sharepoint site seems to specifically deny it access, no matter how much I fiddle with the user agent string. I don't need all the kewl integration, just to let someone get on and look at the calendar, download some files, etc. Isn't there some config file I can edit to allow this?