One of Rev's great characteristics is its portability. A Rev standalone doesn't need a setup. If you create an app in Windows, you can easily load up the same project in Macintosh, create a new standalone, and provided no adjustments to the handling of the file system are needed, the app will run just as well on Mac as it does on Windows. Great!

But there is a fly in the ointment. The Windows file system is different to the Macintosh file system is different to the Linux file system is different to the ..... So if your app makes heavy use of the file system, to run it anywhere, you either have to make it detect and adjust to the specific operating system it is running on, or you have to produce different versions of the app for use on different operating systems. Damn!

One very easy way around this problem is to use Linux. And only Linux. You don't need to install Linux on your HD, or Rev/Linux for that matter. Get yourself a pendrive. If you want to, you can get one with Linux (e.g. Mandriva) already installed on it. Personally, I prefer to install my own version of Puppy Linux on the pendrive. It is so easy that even I can do it very quickly with no hassle at all. Just follow the simple instructions at the Puppy site. So now you can carry the operating system, Rev/Linux and your apps around in your pocket. And you really do only have to create a single version of your app. By this method, Rev is not "cross-platform", it is the operating system itself which is "cross-computer"!

Strangely, a great number of quite modern computers cannot be booted directly from the USB device. In practice, though, this problem is very small. In Puppy, it takes about 1 minute to produce a fat16 diskette for Windows. Use this to boot your pendrive. In other pre-prepared systems (e.g. Mandriva) you can create a CD to do the boot (possibly for Macintosh too, I can't quite remember).

For further info you might like to visit http://www.pendrivelinux.com/