Porting Questions

[Boogaloo_Shrimp]

Just a few questions.<br><br>What kind of programs can be ported?<br>Is it "legal" to port?

[Dan East]

My definition of "porting" is taking the source code to an application designed to run on one platform, and making all the modifications needed for it to run on a different platform. Technically anything can be ported. Of course the amount of effort required can range from very little, to a Herculean total rewrite. There are of course many factors that determine the amount of effort required, such as the programming language(s) used, what API it uses for sound, graphic and filesystem access, the graphical elements may have to be redesigned for a smaller display, etc.<br><br>Obviously then, the original source code is required to make a port. If the source code is available legitimately, then porting is usually one of the main purposes of having released it in the first place. So it is legal. An excerpt of an email from John Carmack regarding Pocket Quake: "I am still happy to see your work -- things like this are exactly what I envisioned for making the code available."<br><br>Now, projects like Exult (the Ultima7 engine clone) is not a port, but a totally new engine written to make use of the Ultima data files. A complete rewrite is required because the source code to Utlima7 hasn't been released. However, making Exult run on a Pocket PC would be considered a port - of Exult, not Ultima7. <br><br>Dan East

[Boogaloo_Shrimp]

From what I'm understanding is the developers of a program release the source for the program after a while. Then you're able to port. Am I correct?

[Dan East]

Well, some companies release source code. Of course they don't have to. In fact, the majority never do. Also, a company familiar with programming for particular platform may contact a software author to see if they want them to port the app to that platform. In that case licensing of some kind would be agreed upon, but the source code would still be private. That happens quite a bit with game consoles, where various 3rd party companies port games to run on additional platforms than what it was initially written for.<br><br>Dan East

[Boogaloo_Shrimp]

So.... i'm bored with the chumpy solitaire that comes with pocket pc. There is a fun solitaire game that comes with windows xp called Spider. Could that be ported?

[jongjungbu]

You could port Spider if you had the source code. MS doesn't usually do such things. So, if you find a game of Spider with the source code available...it could be ported more than likely. Otherwise, work from scratch. But I think someone has made it in some Solitaire ensemble already if you wish to cough up a few bucks.

[esw]

The olny things I know of that MS gave out the source to was Nibbles and Gorillas

[Matt Keys]

Every punk with a graphing calc in my school plays nibbles 24/7

[MZGuy]

Bah...when there's Mario86

[Moose or Chuck]

or ZTetris, or Arknoid, or Poker, or the games I programmed: A.D.D. (advanced dungeons and dragons) and Stock (NYSE game).

[Village_Ideot]

Gorillaz was the coolest game...<br><br>i wouldn't mind if someone ported it to ppc

[esw]

You mean the Qbasic 1.1 version that came with MS-dos? haha. yeah that was fun. I rember always getting out a protractor to measure the angle on the screen, and then always getting the velocite wrong Then when you killed the other gorilla, yours would do this cool little dance

[Paul]

we were meant to hit the other gorilla?!? shit, i just beat the crap out of the sun.

[esw]

I remember when I edited the source a bit to make the explosions HUGE<br><br>I called it Gorialla Nukes. Each bananna wiped out a chunk the size of a golf ball ( held in front of your computer screen )