MicroSabio Platforms / Environments

A-Shell is written in C / C++ and was designed from the ground up to be portable to a variety of operating systems. (Indeed, this is a major reason for its existence, i.e. to provide a single development environment supporting application deployment on multiple platforms.) Historically the list of supported operating systems has included DOS, Windows, Xenix, SCO UNIX, AIX, System V, HPUX and Solaris. Of those, the ones that remain popular today are Windows and Linux, and to a lesser degree, AIX. Larger sites tend to prefer Linux, smaller ones Windows, with AIX remaining the choice mostly for enterprise/data centers and IBM shops.

Platform Commonalities

On all operating systems, A-Shell runs as a native 32 bit application, providing a common shell environment. Within the shell, you have the same core set of commands (based on the AMOS LIT commands), and the same core development and run time environment. All of its components exist as native files within the

standard file directory system, and all application program and data files are binary compatible across all platforms.

Platform Differences

A-Shell may offer a common environment across platforms, but like a house, it is situated within a neighborhood and has a variety of doors and windows through which the inhabitants and neighbors can interact. Notwithstanding the advantages of pure platform isolation/independence, this turns out to be a temptation few (including the developers of A-Shell) can resist. The result being that outside the common A-Shell core, there are a variety of platform-specific attributes and options to consider. The biggest division is between Windows and the UNIX family (Linux and AIX), further details of which are discussed in the sections below.