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What can be done during software development to make the software portable?
Transferring installed program files to another computer of basically the same architecture. Reinstalling a program from distribution files on another computer of basically the same architecture. Building executable programs for different platforms from source code; this is what is usually understood by “porting”.
What are the solutions available for achieving portability?
Well-known strategies for achieving portability include use of standard languages, system interface standards, portable libraries and compilers, etc. These tools are important, but they are not a substitute for a consistent portability strategy during the development process.
What is porting in software development?
In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally designed for (e.g., different CPU, operating system, or third party library).
Is portability applicable to software?
What Is Software Portability? Software portability is the possibility to use the same software in different environments. It applies to the software that is available for two or more different platforms or can be recompiled for them. Common Portability kinds are applicatiion, source code and data portability.
What is the difference between portability and compatibility?
Compatibility is concerned with the ability of two or more systems or components to perform their required functions while sharing the same environment (after IEEE 610). Portability is concerned with the ease of moving components or systems between environments (hardware and/or software environments).
What does it mean to port code?
to carry
.. the term “port” is derived from the Latin portare, meaning “to carry”. When code is not compatible with a particular operating system [or language] or architecture, the code must be “carried” [or “ported”] to the new system. Thus, “a port” is the result of “porting”, and there are many different kinds of “ports”.
What are the characteristics of portability?
Portability is a characteristic attributed to a computer program if it can be used in an operating systems other than the one in which it was created without requiring major rework. Porting is the task of doing any work necessary to make the computer program run in the new environment.
What does’porting’mean in software development?
Porting is not really specific to the development part but is often a step that is often required. Porting as far as software development is just what it means when one is talking about porting most anything except your context is about software development.
Is it possible to port software between platforms?
Writing software that stays within the bounds specified by these standards represents a practical although nontrivial effort. Porting such a program between two standards-compliant platforms (such as POSIX.1) can be just a matter of loading the source code and recompiling it on the new platform.
Two activities related to (but distinct from) porting are emulating and cross-compiling . Instead of translating directly into machine code, modern compilers translate to a machine independent intermediate code in order to enhance portability of the compiler and minimize design efforts.
Why is it important to make software portable?
Software is portable when the cost of porting it to a new platform is significantly less than the cost of writing it from scratch. The lower the cost of porting software, relative to its implementation cost, the more portable it is said to be.