1. Computing & Technology

Discuss in my forum

Definition of Porting

By , About.com Guide

Definition: Programmers will sometimes port their applications between different Operating Systems or hardware. Perhaps from Apple to Windows or Windows to Linux.

Just because it is written in a 'portable' language like C++ does not mean that it will be easy to port an application. For example games on Windows PCs use the Microsoft DirectX libraries for handling all display and sound processing. On Linux those routines would have to be rewritten to use a library like SDL.

There can be other portability problems as well such as differences in the CPU such as the size of an int variable.

Glossary:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Also Known As: Re-writing
Examples:
It took three months to port the game from Macintosh to Windows.

©2012 About.com. All rights reserved.

A part of The New York Times Company.