The NEXTSTEP/OpenStep FAQ

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2.20 Can I exchange software running on different hardware?

With the shipping of NEXTSTEP 3.x binaries are distributed FAT. This means, that a binary might include different versions of the executable for each hardware platform NEXTSTEP is running on. On the archive sites you might easily recognize the supported h

ardware by a key letter: N = NeXT computers, I=Intel based, H=HP hardware, S=Sun hardware. A FAT binary is runable by every supported hardware listed in the binary file. NeXT ships tools to examine such a fat binary and to add/strip different hardwa

re modules to/from a binary.

The correct spelling for a fat binary is: MAB binary (multi architecture binary) but most commonly 'fat' is used.

With the shipping of OpenStep this will change. OpenStep applications are only sourcecode compatible and have to be recompiled for each architecture. This implies that you need a compiler for future PD/SW/FW-software, although OpenStep for Mach will still

support FAT binaries and NEXTSTEP 3.x applications will continue to run under OpenStep for Mach.

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