Multiplatform c project

Question

I have to design a C project that is supposed to be run on Linux. I am very used to design C projects on Windows using Visual Studio or DevC++. Is it feasible to design the project on Windows and then port the code to Linux. Is it possible to use Eclipse CDT for switching compile configurations from Windows to Linux. What should i do? What do you suggest me to do or search?

Answer 1

This is a broad question since we have no info on what you're trying to achieve.

Some guidelines I can share with the limited information provided: in my experience it is feasible to write code on Windows and then port it to Linux although you should expect some differences in the Microsoft compiler and gcc compilers used in Linux/Unix (usually the more a compiler is conformant to the standard, the more it "warns" or won't accept something fishy in your code).

If you're dealing with a large number of dependencies / headers / source structures your project could greatly benefit from using a tool like CMake to deal with all those issues (a meta-generator that can generate makefiles and/or visual studio solutions depending on your platform from the same set of sources).

Also notice that you should NOT use any platform-dependent API in order to render your code portable. If you really need to, make sure to #ifdef those code sections for the specific platform you're compiling your code on.

Finally, if you plan to use a GUI in your application (or even if you're not planning one you might still benefit from the various libraries included), you might use a portable framework like Qt but keep in mind that this would require isolating the C part of your application from the C++ one (Qt). As another choice of your preference, you might also use GTK+.