RE: Solaris ?
- Posted by Derek Parnell <ddparnell at bigpond.com> May 15, 2001
- 368 views
> -----Original Message----- > From: Bernie Ryan [mailto:xotron at localnet.com] > Sent: Wednesday, 16 May 2001 8:44 AM > To: EUforum > Subject: RE: Solaris ? > > > Robert Craig wrote: > > UNIX is not like Windows. > > There are many different flavors produced by > > many different companies or groups, and they > > are all somewhat incompatible. On top of that > > there are many different hardware platforms for UNIX. > > Bernie Ryan wrote: > The include files have to do more with different hardware > than differnt versions of UNIX. > UNIX was written in "C" because it is a portable langauge so > it could be moved easily across platforms. In fact UNIX was > invented by the same programers who wrote "C". If Euphoria is > written in standard "C" then it only needs to be compiled on > the "C" compiler written for that platform. The real problem > may be that Euphoria is not written in "C" that is portable. Hi Bernie, you may be right, however my experiences in porting between Unixes and writing for various flavors of Unix (AIX, Solaris, HUX, System V (Olivetti sub-flavor), Unixware, SCO, Linux, Coherent and Digital) leads me to agree more with Robert. As the adage goes "If you've seen one Unix, you've seen one Unix". Not only do hardware (big-endian vs. little-endian) issues hit you, but the core system calls are often implemented ever so slightly differently. Sometimes it may be that functionality is not supported, or is only partially supported, other times the same system call name has totally different effects, and other times there are side-effects (documented and undocumented) that trip you up. Not to mention the totally unique "extensions" that are implemented, which are often hard to port to other flavors. The big trouble is that most of the functions are identical in all flavors, and this often leads you into a false sense of security before you get the good news dished up to you. ----------- cheers, Derek Parnell Senior Design Engineer Global Technology Australasia Ltd dparnell at glotec.com.au