Cross platform C++ code architecture

Question

I\'m having a bit of a go at developing a platform abstraction library for an application I\'m writing, and struggling to come up with a neat way of separating my platform indep

Answer 1

I'm using platform neutral header files, keeping any platform specific code in the source files (using the PIMPL idiom where neccessary). Each platform neutral header has one platform specific source file per platform, with extensions such as *.win32.cpp, *.posix.cpp. The platform specific ones are only compiled on the relevent platforms.

I also use boost libraries (filesystem, threads) to reduce the amount of platform specific code I have to maintain.

It's platform independent classes declarations with platform specific definitions.

Pros: Works fairly well, doesn't rely on the preprocessor - no #ifdef MyPlatform, keeps platform specific code readily identifiable, allows compiler specific features to be used in platform specific source files, doesn't pollute the global namespace by #including platform headers.

Cons: It's difficult to use inheritance with pimpled classes, sometimes the PIMPL structs need their own headers so they can be referenced from other platform specific source files.