macOS Writing for Mac and PC

[larswik]

I just bought some software to help me do UV Mapping on 3D models. The software asked me to download X11 so it could be used. It works on Mac, PC and Linux. The software is called UV Layout and the interface is not Mac looking at all.

What software is used, and platform is used and programming language is used to write software for those 3 OS's? My guess is C++ but I thought I would ask.

 

[ocabj]

In order for a programming language to be used to create an application on a given OS, all that is needed is a compiler or interpreter for that given language on the target system. That being said, there are many programming languages that can be used to write applications/programs for Windows, OS X, and Linux. Among them included C, C++, C#, Java, Python, Ruby, and Perl.

As far as the application you're referring to "not Mac looking at all" it's probably because they didn't use the Cocoa API and instead leverage X11 for windowing (which is why you're being told to download X11).

 

[larswik]

In order for a programming language to be used to create an application on a given OS, all that is needed is a compiler or interpreter for that given language on the target system. That being said, there are many programming languages that can be used to write applications/programs for Windows, OS X, and Linux. Among them included C, C++, C#, Java, Python, Ruby, and Perl.

As far as the application you're referring to "not Mac looking at all" it's probably because they didn't use the Cocoa API and instead leverage X11 for windowing (which is why you're being told to download X11).

That sheds some more light on it. I don't have any plans to do that but was wondering it was done. If you could then use Xcode which you can write C++ from what I have seen to make a multi platform program.

Thanks.

 

[wgonzvega]

That sheds some more light on it. I don't have any plans to do that but was wondering it was done. If you could then use Xcode which you can write C++ from what I have seen to make a multi platform program.

Thanks.

I just bought some software to help me do UV Mapping on 3D models. The software asked me to download X11 so it could be used. It works on Mac, PC and Linux. The software is called UV Layout and the interface is not Mac looking at all.

What software is used, and platform is used and programming language is used to write software for those 3 OS's? My guess is C++ but I thought I would ask.

There us a software named Xojo that can compile the same code in Mac Win and Linux with some little adjustments. Is not as powerfull as xcode but it compiles on all those platforms even iOS.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

I just bought some software to help me do UV Mapping on 3D models. The software asked me to download X11 so it could be used. It works on Mac, PC and Linux. The software is called UV Layout and the interface is not Mac looking at all.

What software is used, and platform is used and programming language is used to write software for those 3 OS's? My guess is C++ but I thought I would ask.

The appearance of the application is dictated by the framework or library rendering the UI. It has nothing to do with the language used.

Honestly, I can't think of any major language that doesn't work on OS X, Linux, and Windows. Even the language made by Microsoft (C#), and Apple (Obj-C, Swift), have compilers available for all platforms (although in the case of at least Obj-C, the compilers for other platforms weren't written or supported by Apple, just fans.)

To have a Mac looking UI, you should use the Cocoa framework.

I've managed to make a Mac looking UI in TK (for a Python application) by just writing a lot of my own drawing code. It looked Mac no matter which platform you were actually running it on. You could do the same thing in Java Swing or Java FX, I imagine, or with any drawing library/framework, really.

 

[mif]

I don't like Objective C, so at first i started using Xlib. Swift is not for me also, because i use pointers a lot. Then i removed all Carbon and Cocoa code, so now my Application does work under Linux and OS X.

 

[moonman239]

If your focus is on cross-platform applications, my suggestion is to learn a language such as Java, Python, or a .NET language such as C#, F#, Visual Basic, or Visual C++ (basically C++ with automatic memory management)

See, Python is what we call an interpreted language. To run a Python program, you need to first download an interpreter. This interpreter looks at your code and uses it to make native machine code. Just be aware that you may find a Python program to be noticeably slower than a similar program written in a compiled language.

Java & .NET languages are compiled, like C++. However, they aren't compiled to code that the computer can readily understand. They're compiled into code that resembles machine code and can be understood by a virtual machine. When you download Java from Oracle, you're really downloading the JRE, which includes the Java Virtual Machine. For .Net, the machine will either be Mono (Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac) or Microsoft's own Common Language Runtime.

 

[superscape]

You might also want to take a look at something like http://www.xojo.com

I had a brief look when it briefly looked like I might have to develop for Windows as well as OS X. Luckily the requirement to develop for Windows went away so I never ended up using it in anger, but it seemed promising at the time.