I fought hard against that for years. I still only use ‘app’ for phone programs, but I stopped correcting people every time they used the term for anything else. It isn’t technically wrong, but it grates on my nerves for some reason.
Windows is the first thing I can think of that used the word “application” in that way, I think even back before Windows could be considered an OS (and had a dependency on MS-DOS). Back then, the Windows API referred to the Application Programming Interface.
Common dialog boxes make it easier for you to develop applications for the Microsoft Windows operating system. A common dialog box is a dialog box that an application displays by calling a single function rather than by creating a dialog box procedure and a resource file containing a dialog box template.
I fought hard against that for years. I still only use ‘app’ for phone programs, but I stopped correcting people every time they used the term for anything else. It isn’t technically wrong, but it grates on my nerves for some reason.
If someone told me to use the fdisk app I’d be confused.
Use the ls app.
Then use the cd app.
❯ which cd cd: shell built-in commandNot even technically correct, unless…
When I press ‘Reply’, I am using the Reply app
Windows is the first thing I can think of that used the word “application” in that way, I think even back before Windows could be considered an OS (and had a dependency on MS-DOS). Back then, the Windows API referred to the Application Programming Interface.
Here’s a Windows 3.1 programming guide from 1992 that freely refers to programs as applications:
Goddamn …. That is a thing of horrific beauty. I saved it immediately.
(I’m a technical writer so it should be fun to go through this ancient tome)
I don’t have a single problem with the word “application”
Language evolves. Why is a computer program not an “app(lication)” exactly?
Yeah, I thought I made that clear. I just don’t like it.
Oh, it is. It is… Sigh.