EDSAC on your desk.

It was thus said that the Great CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com once stated: As a software geek, C is quite portable, as long as you keep several things in mind, like shorts are at least 16 bits, longs are at least 32 bits, ints are at least 16 bits and can't be longer than a long, and don't use functions not defined in the Standard C library (or stuff you've written). It's only when you strive for solid, reliable robust code that you have to skip past the Standard C library and that's when you start having all those insipid #ifdef's all over the place. It takes experience and some skill to deal with that stuff cleanly [1]. They spend an inordinate amount of time getting the stuff to look decent on *their* system and they assume everyone has the same set up. Also (as far as coding goes) it's easier to write non-portable code than it is portable [2]. Sorry. Unless the content is very compelling, if I can't read it, I'll move on. -spc (Heretic programmer and computer crumudgeon ... ) [1] Basically, it comes down to abstraction. If you can hide the non-portable stuff within a function you have a better chance of dealing with more ports. A program I wrote [3] for Unix needed a few functions changed (about 4) to run successfully under Windows. [2] Actually, it's pretty easy, as long as you plan from the start to make the program portable. But I'm afraid most programmers don't design as much as hack away at things. Linux was like that, and it took about three years to get it ``portable.'' I would like for students in CS departments to be forced to write code for two or more different platforms, but alas, I doubt that'll every come to pass. [3] It's actually a CGI program in C that's being turned into a stand- alone program for Windows. You can play with it at http://www.geofind.com/