art@dinorah.wustl.edu (Arthur B. Smith) (12/08/89)
Greetings netlanders! Pardon the extreme cross posting! We are working on a large software project (ca. 20+ person-years). It has been developed thus far in C to run on a DECstation 3100 running Ultrix (BSD derived) using X11R3 (but not DECwindows). It is a multi-process system, with It has become apparent that we will need to have this system running on a Silicon Graphics 4d series box running IRIX (System V derived), and a scaled down version of this system on some 80386 or 80486 based "PC" running Xenix or some other *ix. These will probably all be developed in parallel (common source, using #ifdef's and the like where necessary). Unfortunately, all of us are raw novices at this cross-system portability issue, and we collectively have very little experience on non-BSD derived Unixen. What I am looking for, therefore, is any wisdom on what is going to be necessary. I am looking for any of: * How much more time (than just developing under Ultrix) will this take? * Should some people develop and others port, or should we all learn to write portable code by porting what we write. * Any recommendations for a 386/486 box and/or operating system? * Any major pitfalls to avoid? If we can learn from other's mistakes, that would be wonderful! * Any problems with using BSD sockets? X Windows? File system issues? Something else? * Any techniques that you have found helpful in doing this type of thing? Please respond by e-mail to art@dinorah.wustl.edu or ...!uunet!wucs1!dinorah!art (I can't possibly find time to follow ALL these groups! 8^). If you are interested in a summary of the responses, please indicate that, and what newsgroup you would like to see it in if there are a lot of requests. I will summarize in one form or another to all who ask. Thanks in advance! -art smith (art@dinorah.wustl.edu or ...!uunet!wucs1!dinorah!art) Most of the words in the first three paragraphs are somebody's trademark. Usual disclaimers apply.