Detecting the OS

[John.H]

Hey all.

I've just been scouting through the board to try and find a solution to what I thought would be a common problem, but 72 threads later and the only thing close to it, was detecting the Windows version, of which someone suggested using GetVersionEx().

Anyway, I'd just like to determine the platform type, whether it's win32, Linux, BSD etc. Not real important, but I've got a simple program I've made here which uses system("cls") to clear the screen in DOS. However, I'd like to have a go at being able to clear the screen across several platforms (using preprocessor directives I'd imagine).

Would it be possible to do this at all? I've seen the methods of clearing the screen in the FAQ, but I wanted to try something like:

#ifdef win32
  // do some funky win32 clear screen stuff
#else
  #ifdef anotherplatformtype
  // do some different clear screen stuff
  #endif
#endif

Thanks in advance.

John.

[Stoned_Coder]

You are pretty much spot on. You just have to get the right preprocessor directives. Just check your compilers help files for conditional compilation and the info you require will be there.

[John.H]

Thanks dude, I'll check that out now. One thing though, those conditions wouldn't be compiler specific would they? Would partly defeat the point if they were.

Just wondering anyway, thanks again.

John.

[Fordy]

Originally posted by John.H
Thanks dude, I'll check that out now. One thing though, those conditions wouldn't be compiler specific would they? Would partly defeat the point if they were.

Just wondering anyway, thanks again.

John.

There are some directives that are used by multiple compilers....but I dont think there's any real standard...

If you use a compiler that's ported to multiple platforms, you should fare better. Try Codewarrior (ports for Win32, Mac and Linux) and gcc distros