Netscape Portable Runtime

In computing, the Netscape portable runtime, or NSPR, a platform abstraction library, makes all operating systems it supports appear the same to (for example) Mozilla-style web-browsers. NSPR provides platform independence for non-GUI operating system facilities. These facilities include:

• threads
• thread synchronization
• normal file and network I/O
• interval timing and calendar time
• basic memory management (malloc and free)
• shared library linking.

Much of the library, and perhaps the overall thrust of it in the Gromit environment, provides the underpinnings of the Java virtual machine, more or less mapping the sys layer that Sun defines for the porting of the Java VM to various platforms. NSPR does go beyond that requirement in some areas, as it also functions as the platform-independent layer for most of the servers produced by Netscape. Some manufacturers expect and prefer that programmers restructure and perhaps even rewrite existing code in order to use the NSPR API. NSPR does not have as a goal the provision of a platform for the porting into Netscape of externally developed code.