Dual platform (Windows/Linux) development
lazarus / 3-General

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tech-pro · 2008-02-05 10:21

I am developing a program that has both Windows and Linux versions
from the same source files. I was very impressed that my program
developed first under Windows compiled immediately under Linux and
worked. Of course, a few platform-specific changes are needed, that
can be handled with $IFDEFS. For example, I have to find a Linux
replacement for ShellExecute, to launch web pages in the user's
browser.

I really would like to have just a single set of source files, and not
risk confusion by copying them to Linux to work there, and then
copying back to Windows. I have read/write access from Linux to my
Windows partition.

Is it practical to compile under two platforms using the same physical
copies of the source files?

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Marc · 2008-02-05 10:53

Thats how I develop lazarus. Sources are located on one fileserver and
the same source is used for compiling
win32/win64/wince/linux32/linux64/macosx

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Almindor · 2008-02-05 21:47

Having the sources on one "active" disk on which you work from both
sides can be a bit troublesome if you don't set things right. Make
sure you put your .ppu/.o files in platform specific output dirs
otherwise you might get some odd errors out of fpc. (it might try to
use a .ppu from different platform, although if that happens then it's
a bug)

Btw. if you use TProcess you can avoid stuff like ShellExecute
altogether without the ugly ifdefs.

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pch · 2008-02-06 08:47

It is also easy to cross compile  from Linux for Windows by installing
the available fpc package.
Then all you need is a XP and/or Vista virtual machine for testing, no
more multi boot required.