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Simply compiling and running on many different platforms (Windows, Linux, 32/64 bit, ARM, ...) has helped me find a number of truly weird issues that would have

by dgemm 12y ago

Simply compiling and running on many different platforms (Windows, Linux, 32/64 bit, ARM, ...) has helped me find a number of truly weird issues that would have surfaced later. Compiler warnings, diverging stdlibs, alignment... I'm a strong believer in this approach.

brianwski 12y ago
Original author here. I COMPLETELY agree. Anybody who defends their little one-platform-world as "special" should run their code through several compilers. It's like running a spell checker on your essay for the first time - the spelling errors jump out at you. Different compilers seem to be amazingly different in catching really obvious bugs. When I get something fully working on Windows and Linux, then the Macintosh XCode points out a problem I think to myself "WHAT THE HECK, HOW DID WINDOWS ALLOW THIS?!" It is worth doing cross platform development simply to raise the quality of the software you are working on, even if you never ship on the other platforms.