'Platform Compatibility’, in literal terms means something which needs a platform to function and is able to function well on various platforms is called Platform Compatibility. Generally this term is used while talking about software applications, where the platform is the operating system installed on the computer on which the application will run. Windows, Linux, Unix, OS/2, IBM, Solaris, Mac etc are the platforms available for different configuration and types of computers. Of these Windows and Linux are commonly known and Mac also takes a good share of popularity.

What makes an application platform compatible? – The choice of tools opted for developing the application. To elaborate say I wish to deploy a web based application, which will be a CRM system to back my business. Now I say I will use PHP as scripting language and MySQL as the database server. The application developed is platform compatible for Windows as well as Linux because both these support PHP as well as MYSQL. But if I would have opted ASP.NET and MS SQL server for development then would have needed a Windows platform to host it, it can not run on Linux platform. Any programming language developed is done for a specific platform then it is enhanced to be supported on different Platforms. If we talk about PHP it was developed for Linux, but now there are compilers available for Windows as well, whereas .NET is developed for Windows platform and till date it does not have complier that can be installed on a Linux server.

Thus if an application is platform compatible or not will depend on language opted for development. With the change of platform definitely certain things do change but mostly it remains the same. When I say few things it means handling of environmental variables, accomplishment of database connectivity etc. Please do note that these examples may vary from language to language but I have mentioned this keeping PHP in mind. What is the reason for platform incompatibility? – The main reason for this is the kernel(core of the operating system) being used by different operating system is designed in a different manner. Since the kernel is different so it would need the compilers to be installed on it to function and work depending on it. And if there is a language that runs of different platforms it means that it has a different compiler for different platforms.

Since I am more associated with web based application, thus for its context I would say if you are looking to deploy a website that will have huge database with it then PHP as scripting language with MySQL as database server is the best option. The application that will be developed using this combination can run on Windows as well as Linux. In other words PHP with MySQL is the combination of choice when deploying a web based application and giving consideration to platform compatibility. While talking about websites some times the term platform compatibility also means that website being deployed functions
properly on all browsers – Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, FireFox, Opera etc.