kaled - 10:53 am on Apr 17, 2008 (gmt 0)

Proper toolkits will also have proper mechanisms for writing user settings and files (avoiding the dreaded UAC prompt)

NONSENSE
UAC prompts are issued when a program starts - that's it - period. Programs may fail to work properly on Vista if they save data in places that are now protected but UAC prompts will certainly not be issued if such attempts are made.

Only very low level programs and device drivers need to access the OS directly.

NONSENSE
Perhaps, if you'd said only efficient programs...

I use Delphi. It's excellent in many ways but but has a tendency to suffer from code-bloat precisely because it attempts insulate the programmer from "low-level" functions. To put this in perspective, one program on my site (freeware) is only 21KB. The equivalent program on another site is over 300KB. I've considered writing a backup tool for flash drives. From memory, the MS version requires .NET and runs to several hundred KB (and wouldn't work at all when I tried it). I reckon I could recreate much the same thing - probably better, in less than 50KB (without needing .NET) but I do concede that it won't work in Linux.

If you are tasked with writing software that must run on multiple platforms, then obviously, an appropriate system is required. However, if you wish to target only a single platform, then using cross-platform tools will result in unnecessarily slow and bloated code.

Kaled.