Portability is the ability  of software to move easily from one hardware platform to another. UNIX was the  first portable operating system, allowing programs to compile on multiple  hardware platforms without the need for the programmer to rewrite code  especially for each type of hardware platform.

True application development  for portability makes use of modular programming that avoids assumptions about  the hardware it will be running on and is, therefore, not machine-dependent.  This means that an application running under UNIX should be able to run on any  UNIX system regardless of the hardware configuration of the system platform. 

Please respond to all of the following prompts:

• UNIX is highly portable. What is portability? What makes UNIX so portable?
•  Why is portability so important?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Portability refers to the ability of software to be easily moved from one platform or system environment to another without requiring extensive modifi... View the full answer