What's the best cross platform approach (Windows/Mac) to deploy a simple service/daem

Hi,

I'm getting confused re the range of options for development & deploying some simple code & UI to both Windows & Mac. Can anyone assist re a good direction here. I do like Ruby, however if it makes sense to move away from this (e.g. java, c#) then so be it. Which development option would people suggest for this?

REQUIREMENTS
1. Support for Windows & Mac
2. The installation should be one-click and package all required dependencies as much as possible.
3. Scheduling capability required - so either via (a) installed as a service/daemon, or (b) ability for installation to schedule periodic call to script (former is preferred)
4. Functionality component requires - ability to access/parse web-sites, and then ability to make HTTP(S) calls out to my site to store parsed data. So heave on HTTP(S) methods. Proxy support required in app, so ability for user to enter host/port/username/password for the proxy server.

DEV OPTIONS ?? - This is where I need help/advice. Some of the many options that come to mind:
1. Develop in Ruby and then find packaging product to create Windows & Mac installation packages - not sure how doable this is yet? Especially if I need the installation to effectively install as a service.
2. Develop in Java for cross-platform? but then needs users to have installed JRE?
3. Develop as Firefox addon? I'm not across this, but even if you can write custom code, then the issue would be firefox would have to be running I guess.
4. Develop windows & Mac versions separately, for example using Visual Studio Express to develop the windows version (assuming it can do HTTP work & create packages for installing services).

What would people suggest here? (would be nice to write once, push a button and then get the Mac & Windows installation packages spat out)

Thanks

This is not really an easy question, as the applications run in different environments. I would say you best bet would be to develop in Java. Java code should have no problems running on both systems. Your next best bet, would be Mono. With Mono, you can develop for windows and run on MAC. However, there might be a few things you can't do with Mono, and you will probably have to target the 2.0 .NET framework. With either JAVA or Mono, you will have make sure the installs have the required framework.

Good luck with you project.

I'd say the easiest is Java C# would need to use Mono to install on a MAC but I think i trust Java a little more with cross platform development. I'm a huge fan of C# but I still think i'd use Java for this project since its been proven and tested to work cross platform on many different occasions.

If you really want to get adventurous you can use C++