ian@utcs.UUCP (Ian F. Darwin) (11/03/84)
From: smiller@eosp1.UUCP (Scott Miller)
There is a lot of press these days on UNIX and all the
"PORTABLE" applications and different programs that are being
written for any UNIX based system. I'm a manager and I've got
very little UNIX experience so I thought I'd consult the
experts on this matter.
I'll raise the question of whether net.general is the right
place to find "experts". Many people have stopped reading this
newsgroup because of the volume of irrelevant articles.
Depending on the application, I'm primarily interested in
business appl's. I expect a port could be as easy as a
re-compilation of the program or require months of recoding.
You're right!
I have the following questions:
1. On the average, with 1 programmer of 2 years UNIX and C
experience how long will it take to port an 'off the shelf'
UNIX business package? If you have a justification for your
statement I'd be interested.
The question is largely irrelevant, since most `off the shelf' business
applications do not come with source code. Thus you must pressure the
vendor to do the port to your particular configuration, or else work
out some cooperative agreement.
As you have said above, a well-written program will recompile. A dog
may take months of effort. Unfortunately, a good UNIX hack can churn
out a working but unmaintainable version of something in very short
order under significant pressure. Beware of the `pressure cooker port'
when it comes time to make changes later!
2. What factors must I consider if I want to buy an 'off the
self' application and be sure I'll minimize (whatever
minimization is) my porting efforts?
Shopping guide: look for companies that have been active in the UNIX
market for a long time (years), not people with some CP/M, RSTS/E or
VMS/MVS program that they've warmed over. The former will have
experience with the kinds of things you run into in porting to
different UNIX varieties; the latter (whatever they know about what
they think biznespeeple want, may have trouble spelling key words like
UNIX or `shell').
3. What do you think of the statement "I can port any UNIX
application in 2 weeks"?
Heavy drugs, man.
4. What do you think of the statement "Porting any UNIX
application will take at least a man year of effort"?
Extremely conservative. Some apps will in fact port just by
recompiling.
Any opinions, insights or references to published articles I'd
sincerely appreciate.
I have been publishing comments and details on UNIX for the last two
years in Microsystems magazine. If you haven't been reading, you should
at least get the October issue (on sale now) and the November one.
The latter will become a collector's item as it has the first part
of a history-of-UNIX article, and is the last issue ever of the magazine!
The April '84 issue has a summary of a large body of `off-the-shelf'
apps including an indicator of which ones have source available. You might
find this informative vis-a-vis your quest for information.
Hope this helps.
--
Ian Darwin, Toronto
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