Darren New wrote:
> nemesis wrote:
>> Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
>>> Because you had lots of OSes called UNIX that weren't compatible with
>>> each other, even at the source level.  (See autoconf)
>>
>> that only happens when you exchange a common API for platform-specific 
>> APIs that
>> do the same thing faster or funkier.  It happens even in Java.
>>
>> It doesn't really happen in M$ because there really is a single vendor 
>> with a
>> single set of solutions and they can cram old APIs to handle old code 
>> in their
>> newer products with newer incompatible APIs.
> 
> Yes. And how does that mean that MS didn't cause that to happen?

because apps running in Windows don't magically run on Solaris, Mac OS, 
Linux or whatever.  What I'm trying to say is that W95, WNT or Vista, 
while not the same OS, continue using old API code to handle old user 
apps.  So, it's MS made cross-platform software possible.  The old apps 
are still relying on old API code, not new code from the new OS handling 
the old apps.

What really made cross-platform software a little more closer to reality 
were industry-strength standards, the internet, quite a few 
cross-platform development languages (Java, Python, Perl etc) and, yes, 
open-source software.  You have the source and it's compiled and running 
everywhere, so let's build more from there on and get done with it.  No 
more proprietary APIs, more portability across truly different OSes...

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