Efficient Migration to Windows

Software portability is gaining importance worldwide as it adds value by increasing the shelf life of a software application. One aspect of portability deals with porting software across multiple operating systems. Amongst the available, Windows and Linux are widely used operating systems. There are various methods for porting a software tool or application developed in Windows to Linux, however, very less has been written about methods to port Linux applications to Windows. Our paper highlights some popular methods for porting a software application written in C from Linux to Windows. The technique emphasized in this paper provides a simple menu driven environment which assists a person completely unaware of Linux to port a C application efficiently to Windows. Our paper explores all aspects of how one can systematically port C application developed on Linux, gain access to C source code on Windows, handle issues related to standard header files, libraries, file translations, compiling, linking, debugging and distribution with the help of a case study. The case study addresses issues related to porting huge C application composed of multiple executable modules with each module involving multiple C files. The paper also highlights the Windows equivalents of Linux command line utilities or tools that may be required for functional verification and debugging.