Portable programs make life much easier for the lazy SysAdmin. Portability is an important consideration because it allows programs to be used on a wide range of operating system and hardware platforms. Using interpretive languages such as bash and Perl that can run on many types of systems can save loads of work.
Programs written in compiled languages such as C must be recompiled at the very least when porting from one platform to another. In many cases, platform-specific code must be maintained in the sources in order to support the different hardware platforms that the ...
