"There has to be a more efficient way of writing cross-platform code" Yes, it's called Freepascal using the Lazarus IDE. Native, cross-platform self-contained

"There has to be a more efficient way of writing cross-platform code" Yes, it's called Freepascal using the Lazarus IDE. Native, cross-platform self-contained binaries that run fast and don't using oodles of memory or require massively-sized binaries. Why is it not more widely used? Because of that word Pascal. That's enough to dismiss it in the minds of many developers. Modern Pascal has many of the features we associate with modern languages e.g OOP and generics. But Pascal's syntax, age and verbosity mean many developers will never give it a second look.