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   <TITLE>Porting ACE and TAO to a New OS Platform</TITLE>
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<HR><P>
<H3>Porting ACE and TAO to a New OS Platform</H3><P>

The <A HREF="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE.html">ACE</A>
framework and the <A
HREF="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/TAO.html">TAO</A> ORB have been
ported to <A
HREF="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE-versions-i.html">many OS
platforms</A>.  Porting ACE and TAO to new platforms is fairly easy.
The following document describes the step-by-step process to use when
porting the various <A
HREF="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE-overview.html">components
and layers</A> in ACE to a new OS platform.  Once ACE is ported, it is
straightforward to port TAO, as well.<P>

<H4>Create a <CODE>config.h</CODE> Header File for the Target OS Platform</H4>

A <CODE>config-*.h</CODE> header file exists in <A
HREF="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE_wrappers/ace/">$ACE_ROOT/ace</A>
for each platform to which ACE has been ported.  This file contains
the portability macros for each particular configuration of ACE.  A
complete description of the existent macros can be found in the <A
HREF="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE_wrappers/ace/README">$ACE_ROOT/ace/README</A>
file. <P>

Currently, you must edit this file by hand to port it to new OS
platforms.  It's a good idea to use the <CODE>config-*.h</CODE> files
for platforms with similar characteristics as examples.  Ultimately,
we plan to <A HREF="http://squall.tn.cornell.edu/aceconf">auto
configure</A> these files. <P>

<H4>Port the <CODE>ACE_OS</CODE> Class</H4>

The <CODE>ACE_OS</CODE> class encapsulates most of variation between
the different OS implementations, e.g., UNIX, Win32, and various
real-time operating systems.  It is the core class of the ACE OS
abstraction layer.  Most work required to port ACE to a new OS
platform resides in this class.  There are <EM>many</EM> examples of
how ACE has been ported to other operating systems in the
<CODE>ACE_OS</CODE> class in the
<CODE>$ACE_ROOT/ace/OS.{h,i,cpp}</CODE> files. <P>

<H4>Port the C++ Wrapper Components</H4>

After porting the <CODE>ACE_OS</CODE> class, the next step is to port
all of the ACE C++ wrapper components, such as sockets, threads,
synchronization mechanisms.  A full list of the categories and classes
can be found in the <A
HREF="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE_wrappers/ACE-categories">$ACE_ROOT/ACE-categories</a>
file.  It is easiest to concentrate on porting one category at the
time.  The ACE release contain a <A
HREF="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE_wrappers/tests/README">one-button
test suite</A> in the <A
HREF="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE_wrappers/tests/">$ACE_ROOT/tests/</A>
directory.  These tests can be used to validate the correctness of the
various ACE C++ wrappers as they are ported. <P>

<H4>Port the Higher-level Framework Components of ACE</H4>

Having ported (and tested) all the components of the ACE OS
adapptation layer and C++ wrappers, you can proceed to port the higher
level components of ACE, such as the Reactor, Service Configurator,
Connector, Acceptor, and Streams frameworks.  At this point, it should
be relatively easy to port the rest of ACE because most of the
platform-dependent code is localized in the lower layers of ACE. <P>

<H4>Port TAO</H4>

After porting and successfully testing all the ACE framework
components, it also should be relatively easy to port and <A
HREF="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE_wrappers/TAO/TAO-INSTALL.html">install</A>
TAO because all of its platform-dependent code is localized in ACE.
Typically, the only problems that arise when porting TAO is bugs with
C++ compilers. <P>

<HR><P>
<H3>C++ Features Required to Port ACE and TAO</H3>

ACE and TAO have been ported to most C++ compilers.  The following is
a list of which C++ features a compiler must support in order to
compile ACE and TAO:

<UL>
<LI> <B>Templates</B> -- The C++ compiler must support templates.
    However, it need not support template member functions nor must it
    support template traits. <P>

<LI> <B>Multiple inheritance and dynamic binding</B> -- The C++
    compiler must support multiple inheritance and dynamic
    binding. <P> 
</UL>

The following is a list of which C++ features that ACE and TAO can
take advantage of if a compiler supports them:

<UL>
<LI> <B>Exceptions</B> -- The ACE library itself does not catch or
    throw C++ exceptions.  However, you can use exceptions in code
    that uses ACE including throwing exceptions inside call back
    methods, as long as you provide the code to handle it.
    TAO can be configured to use C++ exceptions if ACE supports them,
    <EM>i.e.</EM>, if <CODE>ACE_HAS_EXCEPTIONS</CODE> is defined. <P>

<LI> <B>RTTI and ANSI casts</B> -- If the OS platform supports RTTI
    and the new ANSI
    C++ casts, <EM>i.e.</EM>, <CODE>ACE_HAS_ANSI_CASTS</CODE> is
    enabled, then the various <CODE>ACE_*_cast</CODE> macros will
    utilize these casts.  Otherwise, the macros will default to
    "C-style" casts. <P>

<LI> <B>Namespaces</B> -- ACE does not utilize namespaces.  However,
    TAO will automatically take advantage of namespaces if the C++
    compiler supports them, <EM>i.e.</EM>, if
    <CODE>ACE_HAS_BROKEN_NAMESPACES</CODE> is <EM>not</EM> enabled. <P>
</UL>

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Back to the <A
HREF="http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/ACE_wrappers/ACE-INSTALL.html">ACE
installation</A> page.

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