Portability

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Portability \Port`a*bil"i*ty\, n.
     The quality or state of being portable; fitness to be
     carried.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:



  portability
       n : the quality of being light enough to be carried

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  portability
       
           The ease with which a piece of
          software (or {file format}) can be "ported", i.e. made to run
          on a new {platform} and/or compile with a new {compiler}.
       
          The most important factor is the language in which the
          software is written and the most portable language is almost
          certainly {C} (though see {Vaxocentrism} for counterexamples).
          This is true in the sense that C compilers are available for
          most systems and are often the first compiler provided for a
          new system.  This has led several compiler writers to compile
          other languages to C code in order to benefit from its
          portability (as well as the quality of compilers available for
          it).
       
          The least portable type of language is obviously {assembly
          code} since it is specific to one particular (family of)
          {processor}(s).  It may be possible to translate mechanically
          from one assembly code (or even {machine code}) into another
          but this is not really portability.  At the other end of the
          scale would come {interpreted} or {semi-compiled} languages
          such as {LISP} or {Java} which rely on the availability of a
          portable {interpreter} or {virtual machine} written in a lower
          level language (often C for the reasons outlined above).
       
          The act or result of porting a program is called a "port".
          E.g. "I've nearly finished the {Pentium} port of my big bang
          simulation."
       
          Portability is also an attribute of {file formats} and depends
          on their adherence to {standards} (e.g. {ISO 8859}) or the
          availability of the relevant "viewing" software for different
          {platforms} (e.g. {PDF}).
       
          (1997-06-18)