Which programming language to use?

I write my games in Java (using LWJGL), and they all work on PC and Mac - and I've never even tested them myself on a Mac. [grin] (They probably work on Linux too, but I don't tend to get many Linux testers).

Another alternative would be to use one of the Blitz languages - IIRC they're compatible with windows and mac, but you'll need to recompile it for each platform.

Java will almost certainly work on both.

If you can recompile, then C/C++ and SDL should work, as long as the Macs use OS X. However, if you already know Java, then that's the way to go.

I write my games in C# and run them with Mono on Linux and Mac. Tao lets me use OpenGL and SDL from C#.

As said, Java will work fine. C++ will work if you can compile. C# will work if you have the tmie to use Mono/Tao (which I use as well).

But also:

ruby and Python (Pygame) will work cross platform too. And I know mac ships with a version of ruby already installed (of course the game wrapper libraries would need to be added as dependencies). It probably has Python by default too.

i write in java, saves a lot of time with premade classes (even if they can be... cryptic) and like everyone's been saying, works on mac/linux/windows.

It isn't as fast or natural-feeling as C/C++, but it gets the job done and if done right doesn't look like PASCAL.

*shiver*

Yeah, I would say go with Java. Since this is just a school project and you need it to be very cross platform. Pretty much anyother language would work as well but you would need to recompile probably. With java you can just compile it at home and run it at school.

If you did not have that requirement I would say go with c++/lua or python (although python can do like java if you have the python intrepeter installed, java is faster though).

Quote:

... but it gets the job done and if done right doesn't look like PASCAL.

This elicited a hearty chuckle from myself. Well done, good sir.

C/C++ is good because almost everything is written in it.

Java is good because its really portable.

C# is good if youve got Mono.

theres other languages out there as well. If its just for a game, and its not going to require any 3D graphics, BYOND is a good choice because it has all the tools you need in one package, and it can port to Mac and Linux, without any modification to the source.

Java's a great choice for portability when paired with something like lwjgl or even the new implementation of Java3D.

Personally, I use C++ with a mix of SDL and OpenGL and a lot of cross-platform experience gained from bumps and scrapes.

Thanks for the advice. I will probably use Java based on what you have said, especially since the school network, access privileges, and installing new things onto the network would probably be difficult and involve meeting with the network administrators repeatedly. A major part of the project is learning, so I'm up to studying new languages. Java will also be good since I am learning about the basics to Java for my AP computer science class, so I could learn about Java for 2 reasons at once.