[gizmo686]

I haven't done any significant amount of porting code. But, wouldn't the fact that almost every OS other than windows is unix-like make porting between those OS's inherently easier than porting to windows?

Besides, the issue explicitly brought up was the fact the Microsoft C++ compiler does not fully support C-11.

[to3m]

I think the issue brought up in the post to which I responded singled out Windows as being specifically difficult to port to, if you use the standard tools for writing native code. This is contrary to my experience, but it's a somewhat common attitude amongst people for whom portability means "targets POSIX". So I thought I'd write a little screed.

As for your other point, it's indeed true that some systems are more like some other systems, and not like others. But so what? If you want your code to be portable, it needs to build on all the targets you support. So you need to do that. Perhaps people assume there's some magic bullet, or secret special thing that you can do? Sadly not, just the usual - work and some forward planning.