Write Portable Code: A Guide to Developing Software for Multiple Platforms

by Brian Hook

Portable software development is writing software that runs on a broad range of computer systems instead of just one (e.g., Windows). Programmers often pick up the idioms, tricks and methodologies for developing cross-platform software through sheer trial and error, as they encounter the same mistakes and patterns of code over time. If you're an intermediate-to advanced-level programmer who'd rather cut to the chase, Write Portable Code contains the lessons, patterns and knowledge you'll need for developing cross-platform software. Write Portable Code explains how avoid common portability mistakes when starting out a new project, thereby saving time when a port must occur re-factor existing, non-portable code so that it can be easily transplanted to new platforms find bugs masked by platform specific behaviors Programmers who avoid becoming married to a specific development environment or target platform greatly expand the target market for their software products. Whether you design cross-platform software from the ground up or have to move large amounts of code from one platform to another, the information contained in Write Portable Code will help you achieve your goals and grow as a programmer. TOC
Preface
Introduction Chapter 1: Preparing for Portability Chapter 2: ANSI C/C++ Chapter 3: Techniques for Portability Chapter 4: Editing and Source Control Chapter 5: Processor Differences Chapter 6: Floating Point Chapter 7: Preprocessor Chapter 8: Compiler Quirks Chapter 9: User Interaction Chapter 10: Networking Chapter 11: Operating Systems Chapter 12: Dynamic Libraries Chapter 13: Security and Permissions Chapter 14: File Systems Chapter 15: Scalability and Portability Chapter 16: Portability and Data Chapter 17: Internationalization and Localization Chapter 18: Scripting Languages Chapter 19: Cross-platform Libraries and Toolkits
Appendix POSH Appendix The Simple Audio Library Appendix The Rules for Portability References

Genres: Programming, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published July 12, 2005

Reviews

[Elie De Brauwer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting little book, to be seen in its historic context of the early 2000s when the DECs and Sun's were still on their way out, where x86 the de facto standard for PCs and when Mac still meant PPC. Nowadays AMD64 and ARM are obviously ruling the world and quite some new C/C++ etc standards have arisen making some/most of the topics covered quite dated. The latest chapter in the book also become quite short.

[Mahmoud ElSherif · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is necessary for every software lead and developer to understand the portability aspects during software development process.
reading this book will help you to develop precise coding guidelines for cross-platform applications

[Jens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad, but a majority of this information can easily be found online.