I didn't intend for what I said to hinder deployment across multiple
platforms. Rather, it's just a recognition that all the platforms have
some unique features. I want to be able to use unique features, but have
a common code base for my application without resorting to
preprocessing or something ugly like that.
For example, I want to do:
if (platform.supports(system trays)) then
make system tray calls
if (platform.supports(trashcan) then
set up trashcan drop target
etc...
what I *don't* want is:
if (platform.is(win32)) then
make system tray calls
because what if the Mac or Linux comes along and starts providing that
feature?
what I *do* want is the ability for new features to be added without
affecting in any way the platforms that don't support it. Ideally they
should automatically indicate they can't support that feature without
even being recompiled.
As far as I can tell, we're not disagreeing, just coming at it from
different viewpoints.
Ryan Lowe wrote:
While I agree with Ed's sentiments in principle, in practise some of
us would like to be able to deliver cross-platform Java/RCP apps. If
we say "who cares about WORA" then deployment across multiple
platforms becomes more difficult.