Running a Ported Program

The ease with which you can run a program ported to *nix with the TurboC library depends on which Turbo C capabilities have been used. The important points to consider are whether the "console i/o" capabilities (as represented by the header file conio.h) and/or the "graphics" capabilities (as represented by the header file graphics.h) have been used.

While text-based programs ported with the TurboC library run to some extent in almost any *nix text terminal, it is highly advisable to run the ported program under the X-window system, explicitly using xterm. I'd recommend invoking your program as follows, either from a command line or as a desktop icon:

xterm +sb -tn linux -e PortedProgram PortedProgramOptions ...

(See "man xterm".) The "+sb" command-line switch removes scrollbars from the xtermxterm color settings, function-key interpretation, etc., match what's used in Linux (where I've been developing the TurboC library). This is useful, for example, if the ported program is being run in FreeBSD, where xterm's default settings aren't necessarily the same as in Linux. console. The "-tn linux" command-line switch insures that the

The deficiencies which you may encounter if xterm is not used are numerous, but other kinds of text consoles (even a real text console without the X-window system) may prove to be satisfactory for your purposes. You'll simply have to try it and see, if you're so inclined.

Graphical capabilities, on the other hand, are supported only under the X-window system, and require availability of an X server. In general, this means that the ported program can be run on any *nix box except bare-bone ones (like firewalls) or quirky ones (like Mac OS X) that don't provide X.