The transferability of computer programs and the data on which they operate

Software transferability involves the transfer of programs and the data on which they operate from one arbitrary operating environment to another, with the expenditure of only a small fraction of the initial programming development time and cost. The programs can range from small routines for evaluating trigonometric functions, to large and complex systems such as compilers, data management systems, or command and control systems. The environments in which these programs are to be executed may be either slightly or highly dissimilar with respect to machines, machine configurations, or operating systems and languages used.