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Very interesting comments and moderation discussion on this article.

So am I getting this right? Cosmopolitian allows me to compile my code once, and run the same binary on every machine it supports? Is this a dream?

This is neat, but I'd rather just pick my platform from a list of binaries. Those who don't know what they're running probably aren't spoofing their user agent either, so you can just* serve them the correct option with a big button first.

* It doesn't seem that you can reliably get the CPU architecture from the user agent yet.

Old schooler oils not find itself accept self modifying program. Yes it said it just change so to run in multiple environment so script, win binary … etc. or lie to the os what you really are.

Is that another name for virus / worm.

More gently, is it I just fat binary in a compact form. If so why not use label the source to cross compile so when Apple dump Intel, we do not need to carry that program.

I assume this technique will work on read-only media like CDs or ROMs (patches itself in RAM)?

I have learned there is no true portability. Example: named pipes:

I started my professional career as a C++/Qt developer. There was this code to disallow multiple application instances using named pipes. It used named pipes under both Linux and Windows - just create a named pipe "my-program-pipe" and it was a signal for other starting up instances to communicate to it "please put the main app on top" and close.

On linux it worked like a charm. On Windows it worked like a charm...

...only first time. The code was written to "try create a named pipe and if failed - then it means it exists, so write to it instead and exit". This "try create" operation on windows failed but also removed the original existing pipe, thus allowing the third instance to coexist with the first one.

What I mean - Operating Systems are more than this, you cannot write a truly portable application without knowing them all. And especially those quirks that differ...