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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RFisher" data-source="post: 3773747" data-attributes="member: 3608">Yeah. & no doubt I'd learn something from discussing the topic with you. But I'm doing my best to avoid such a discussion in public forums. Heck, I probably shouldn't have even posted in this thread. I probably shouldn't even be writing this post...My dad stuck with Apple even during the years that I couldn't. (Plus, during that time, I decided Playstation was for games, computer wasn't--with some minor exceptions.) Yet he has never had a lack of Mac games. In fact, we just bought him another one for his birthday.Once you separate the crap (however you define it) out of the vast majority of game software, you find that a lot of what remains is Mac compatible.& Microsoft Office has always been available for the Mac. Microsoft clearly felt it when they allowed Office for the Mac to stagnate.A moot point. A decent programmer will get up to speed on cross-platform development faster than a lousy programmer will produce crappy code that works.OK, here's the brief version: I worked for a three man company (only two of us were programmers) that produced shrinkwrapped consumer software that sold well. We supported Mac 68K, Mac PowerPC, Windows 3.11, Windows 95, & Windows NT. (& if you think supporting different versions of Windows isn't cross-platform development, you haven't dealt with a complex product that really tries to fit each platform.) When I started, none of us had Windows programming experience, yet we had our first product on the shelf in 6 months.I could go on, but that's the job that may be most analogous to the topic at hand.So, arguments that cross-platform development is too expensive or takes too many resources or results in lowest-common-denominator software, &c.; doesn't hold water with me. Rather, I've seen that the benefits of cross-platform development far outweigh any additional cost.Where cross-platform development gets expensive is when you postpone it.So, why doesn't everybody do it? Well, there certainly are situations when cross-platform development doesn't make sense, but that doesn't account for everybody. It is, IMHO, because the decisions are too often make on instinct or "conventional wisdom". I hate to say it, but I believe a lot of my success in this industry is because I refuse to accept the conventional wisdom until I've convinced myself it is right & applicable to my specific situation, not because I have superior coding fu. & I've been lucky to work for some people who respected my experience, research, & opinions.</blockquote>

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