the big argument to having a single-platform base for an application is that you can push the functionality. It’s a valid point that has done Windows well over the years. computer games could not be as powerful as they are now if they had to start with being x-platform.

but if you look at the Flash player, there’s been an awful lot of work to ensure it works consistantly from Win to OS-X to Linux (better late than never). In doing so, the applications are built to be more robust – they have to be.

this is why I’d like to see the AIR runtime not branch out with platform specific functionality – short term pain, sure, but long-term gain as I write apps that can run anywhere and have no fear to do so.

“a truly cross platform plugin should behave the same everywhere.”

exactly. application-wise, it’s in MS’s best interest to do so. MS spending a lot of effort to ensure Silverlight runs perfectly on other platforms will make their platform very robust and even the Windows versions,

the point about Sharepoint was that, spec’ing an application to run on a single platform may actually be doing it a disservive because it’s only considered to work in that environment – the “downhill with a tailwind” saying…

I’m not sure I get your point, could you please elaborate it a little bit

Mrinal

for my money, the only way to make ANY web application robust is to spend the effort to make it X-platform, not just work “downhill with a tailwind”.

the real value of x-plaftom: quality.