Specifications

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Portable and Interoperable Application Support
You can use OpenVMS programming tools to design portable applications, that is,
applications that can be easily moved from one computer system to another. An
example of a portable application is one that runs on an OpenVMS AXP system
with POSIX for OpenVMS AXP installed and also runs on a Sun SPARCstation.
(POSIX is the acronym for Portable Operating System Interface for UNIX.)
You can also use OpenVMS programming tools to design interoperable
applications, that is, applications that can work with applications from other
vendors, sharing data and other resources.
This chapter presents an introduction to the following topics:
• Application portability and interoperability
• OpenVMS support of standards
• DECwindows Motif programming support
• POSIX programming support
• Database interface with Structured Query Language (SQL)
• Industry standard 2D and 3D graphics support
For more information about these topics, see the OpenVMS Software Overview.
2.1 Application Portability and Interoperability
To achieve portability and interoperability, applications must be developed using
programming interfaces, programming languages, routines, and tools that are
supported by formal standards. Modular programming techniques can contribute
to portability and interoperability. Platform-specific features such as run-time
services, file formats, and uncommon language extensions must be avoided.
Furthermore, for applications to be portable, the target platforms must support
the same standards. In order for data to be portable and interoperable, the target
applications must support the same standards.
Portable applications written strictly to a suite of open specifications provide the
following benefits:
• Applications can be written once and run on other open platforms that
support the standards used in the applications.
• Applications are vendor independent.
• Application maintenance is less costly.
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