Hi all,

I want to know whether can i write an application C program on linux, and able to execute on Windows.

Please tell me what is the procedure to this.

Thanks in Advance.

Sateesh Galla.

There is no way to directly run applications compiled for Linux in Windows.

Cygwin is an environment in Windows which provides all the Linux tools and system calls. You can recomplie Linux applications in Cygwin and then they will run in Cygwin.

Otherwise, you can run Linux inside an emulator.

You can also write a portable application in C by using libraries available on both sides, and compile one binary version for each target O/S and architecture.

A simpler way would be to use a portable language like Java.

if im reading that right i would have to download a gcc and bash to beable to compile and run a program using Cygwin?

to answer boxerboy's question, that's useful for not having to re-install cygwin (and inherantly - everything) to get a minor update for 'less'.
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on the machine level shouldn't 'hello-world' work on both os's (because it is not calling any outside dll/ shared lib or kernal dependant code). considering how efficient gcc versus vs6/.net is, shouldn't the byte code they generate be similar.
has anyone compared the hex code/ assembly instructions created on both platforms for 'hello-world'?
i never tried this but i assume it to be true (x86 is x86 regardless of the operating system).

is there anything wrong with my theory?
schneidz

I'm not at all a Win32 expert, but here are some areas where differences will probably (or certainly) destroy your theory:
executable file format
relocation
dynamic linking method
function calling conventions
CPU register usage
memory model
interruption handling
...

Go with Java or an interpreted language instead

i never considered those os layer tasks, they are so transparent you don't really think of it much.

well java cheats in that it is not multi-platform. it works on only one platform (jvm). in order to run programs you will have to install a jvm specific to each platform.
doesn't this add more overhead as in another layer of translation/ interpreting (more clock cycles)?

not a big fan of the java,

That's no specific to Java, it is simply the only way to provide binary portability whatever the underlying platform is.
Same could be said to interpreted languages, which need a runtime too.

It adds some overhead, undoubtly.
Whether this has a visible impact on perceived performance depend on many other factors.
You should reconsider that, Java used to be somewhat sluggish at the beginning, but with modern versions, the on the fly compilation make difference fade vs native code.

For example, I'm working since a couple of weeks ago with a free, open source 3D modeler, with ray tracing rendering in full java (Art Of Illusion). Manipulating a bunch of complex 3D objects is impressivly fast and show a good sample of what java is able to do now.

I tend to still find java apps slow but hey gtk apps are slow like that as well :P


Phex is a good example of java programming. its not really slow ither.

Take a look at trollteck QT designer. We use it for all our GUIs.
The customers love it too. Windows, Linux, Solaris, very nice.
You do have to compile the app for each target to create the executables,
its rarely a problem... depending on what you're trying to do.
http://www.trolltech.com/products/qt/index.html