(adj.) (1) When used to describe
hardware,
portable means small and lightweight. A portable
computer is a computer small enough to carry. Portable computers include notebook and
subnotebook computers,
hand-held computers,
palmtops, and
PDAs.
(2) When used to describe software, portable means that the software has the ability to run on a variety of computers. Portable and machine independent mean the same thing—that the software does not depend on a particular type of hardware.