Write Once, Run Forever

Ed Grochowski

Introduction

In four decades of computer programming as a hobby, I have written a great deal of software. Initially, I wrote software for my home-built computers using the Z80 and 68000 microprocessors. In 1995, I switched to Microsoft's then-new Windows 95 running on personal computers. In 2004, I again switched to GNU/Linux running on personal computers.

Each change required enormous effort to port my software to the new platform. By now, I have written and maintain hundreds of programs. These include programs that I use today and programs that I keep for historical interest.

Portability has become my highest priority. This article looks at the software tools that I use.

Programming Languages

General Programming - C/C++

For general programming, C and C++ are high-performance and universal.

C++ is a large language with a rich feature set. I find that C++ is best approached by selecting a suitable subset.

I write most code using the subset of C++ that is C. C++ features are limited to the use of new, delete, bool, and const. The C++ const keyword provides real constants, eliminating much of the need for the preprocessor's #define.

I prefer to code in the procedural style of C using struct to encapsulate the variables shared by a set of procedures.

I use GCC for my daily builds and occasionally use LLVM to compare against GCC.

Shell Scripts - Bash

Shell scripts glue together C/C++ programs. They are a convenient way to create powerful programs with only a few lines of code.

Shell scripts invoke the functionality provided by Bash, the GNU coreutils, and of course my programs.

Libraries

All Applications - GNU C Library

The GNU C library is universal. This includes the well-known stdlib, stdio, and math libraries.

Graphical Applications - GTK

GTK provides all the widgets that one would expect in a modern graphical user interface. GTK's main libraries are gtk, gdk, cairo, pango, and glib.

I use GTK 2.24 because of its excellent stability and performance. Graphical user interface descriptions are designed in Glade 3.8 and read using GtkBuilder.

Icons in PNG and SVG formats are created with Gimp and Inkscape, respectively.

Multithreaded Applications - Pthread

To utilize multicore processors, computation-intensive programs are multithreaded. These programs call the Pthread library to create and synchronize threads. Pthread is now part of the GNU C library.

Operating System

Environment - Slackware Linux

I run Slackware Linux because it is extremely Unix-like. Everything works like a Unix programmer would expect.

System Calls - POSIX

To access to low-level functionality, I call the operating system using POSIX system calls. These include stat, lstat, fork, getpid, and waitpid.

Build System - GNU Autotools

GNU autoconf, automake, and libtool are a build system that works on many platforms and standardizes the process of configuring, building, and installing software. The GNU autotools require only small input files that describe how to configure and build a software package.

Documentation - HTML and Man Pages

Graphical programs have HTML documentation and command-line programs have Unix man pages.

HTML 4.01 transitional has long been a standard on the world wide web. I write documentation in HTML 4.01 transitional and view it in the Firefox web browser.

Conclusion

These software development tools can be expected to remain forward-compatible. This is possible because they are all standardized, open-source, and licensed under terms that permit everyone to contribute to them.

Through judicious choice of tools, I expect that my software will continue to run for the foreseeable future.