Is being a good cross-platform tool good enough?

[Frank Leahy]

> Frank.....
>
> Pardon me, but this comment seemed a little strange to me. "Just
> another cross-platform tool"? What others are there? RealBasic has been
> mentioned. Maybe Director (though it's not for general-purpose apps).
>

Dan,

Let's say you've been hired to develop a cross-platform accounting 
system, and you present the spec to your client.  After reading it over 
they ask why features A, B and C are missing, and you respond with 
"well, no other cross-platform accounting system can do that".  Do you 
suppose you're going to get the project?  I doubt it, not when your 
client is competing against single-platform packages that do A, B and 
C.

Same goes for RunRev.  When a programmer evaluates RunRev they're 
looking not just at cross-platform packages, but at single-platform 
packages as well, and they're weighing the ease of going cross-platform 
with a limited set of technologies, versus the cost of not having 
access to native technologies that RunRev doesn't support.  And when 
there's a single-platform must-have that RunRev doesn't support then 
RunRev doesn't get the sale.

> I think the shoe belongs on the other foot. If Rev attempts to be "just
> another Windows tool" (or for that matter "just another Mac tool") it
> will miss its opportunity to be the best damn cross-platform tool
> around.

Kevin doesn't have enough $$$ in the bank to keep up with the latest 
technologies on all the platforms he's trying to support, and so he's 
always going to have to shoot for the lowest common denominator.  He 
can get rid of that problem by providing native API support once.  
Because once he does that the problem goes away -- forever.

-- Frank