Category talk:Cross-platform software

Cleanup

 * 1) Java libs and apps should be on the Java page and removed from here.
 * 2) KDE apps also has a category and should be moved there.
 * 3) Gnome apps should have a category and be moved there.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Falde (talk • contribs) 19:11, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

Useful?
This category has several problems:


 * Much modern software runs on at least two of the common platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS). So what is the value of the category?
 * Any software written in many languages which is careful not to use platform-dependent features is automatically cross-platform.
 * Most software that runs on more than one platform is not listed here. Consider, say, historically important programs like Visicalc and DOCTOR.
 * Some software only ran on multiple platforms in certain versions. Consider Mathcad, which gave up on its Mac port.
 * How different do two platforms need to be for software to be considered "cross-platform"? Many programs ran on both TOPS-10 and ITS, which were very different and incompatible operating systems, both for the PDP-10. Much software for them could be built for either one.
 * How similar do the two versions have to be? TECO (text editor) existed on many machines, but each machine's version was somewhat different.
 * Why are programming languages included here? Common Lisp, COBOL, and Python (programming language) are specifications/standards, and not software at all -- their implementations are software. If we're going to include programming languages, almost all serious programming languages have implementations on multiple platforms, so why don't we include Algol 58, Algol 60, Algol 68, Simula 67, Interlisp, Emacs Lisp, Scheme (programming language), Clozure CL, Clojure, etc. etc. ad infinitum.

Some of these problems can be resolved by defining the category more carefully -- to exclude programming languages, say -- but mostly, the category seems to be far too big to be meaningful or useful to anyone. --Macrakis (talk) 17:56, 18 March 2021 (UTC)