Unix Programming - What Unix Gets Right - Cross-Platform Portability and Open Standards
Cross-Platform Portability and Open Standards
Unix is still the only operating system that can present a
consistent, documented application programming interface (API) across
a heterogeneous mix of computers, vendors, and special-purpose
hardware. It is the only operating system that can scale from embedded
chips and handhelds, up through desktop machines, through servers, and
all the way to special-purpose number-crunching behemoths and database
back ends.
The Unix API is the closest thing to a hardware-independent
standard for writing truly portable software that exists. It is no
accident that what the IEEE originally called the Portable
Operating System Standard quickly got a suffix added to
its acronym and became
POSIX. A
Unix-equivalent API was the only credible model for such a
standard.
Binary-only applications for other operating systems die with
their birth environments, but Unix sources are forever. Forever, at
least, given a Unix technical culture that polishes and maintains
them across decades.
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