System and program product for porting code utilizing a portable execution environment

At least one program storage device readable by a machine having recorded thereon at least one program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method of porting code from a native platform to a non-native platform, the method comprising

• providing a non-native, platform-specific layer for interfacing to a non-native platform;
• providing a portable, layered execution environment including:
• providing a platform-neutral layer and a ported code layer, the platform-neutral layer substantially emulating a native platform of the ported code and providing the non-native, platform-specific layer with a platform-neutral interface to the ported code layer wherein the platform-neutral layer comprises a platform-neutral services-and-interfaces sublayer and a personality sublayer, the platform-neutral services and interfaces sublayer defining a set of services available to components of the platform-neutral layer, and the personality sublayer translating request for services from the platform-neutral services and interfaces sublayer to the ported code and translating requests for services from the ported code to the platform-neutral services-and-interfaces sublayer, the ported code layer being executable on the native platform, the platform-neutral layer being separate from the non-native, platform-specific layer and separate from the ported code layer;
• and
• wherein the platform-neutral layer and the ported code layer define the portable, layered execution environment for facilitating, and the non-native, platform-specific layer facilitates execution of the portable, layered execution environment on the non-native platform and interfaces to an operating system of the non-native platform.