Cross Platform Compatibility

Cross-Platform Compatibility

Table of Contents

• Overview
• When to Use
• Quick Start
• Reference Guides
• Best Practices

Overview

Comprehensive guide to writing code that works seamlessly across Windows, macOS, and Linux. Covers file path handling, environment detection, platform-specific features, and testing strategies.

When to Use

• Building applications for multiple operating systems
• Handling file system operations
• Managing platform-specific dependencies
• Detecting operating system and architecture
• Working with environment variables
• Building cross-platform CLI tools
• Dealing with line endings and character encodings
• Managing platform-specific build processes

Quick Start

Minimal working example:

// ❌ BAD: Hardcoded paths with platform-specific separators
const configPath = "C:\\Users\\user\\config.json"; // Windows only
const dataPath = "/home/user/data.txt"; // Unix only

// ✅ GOOD: Use path module
import path from "path";
import os from "os";