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A comment on Microsoft Announces Converter for Bringing Win32 Apps to the Windows Store. Parent comment

Re:Microsoft Announces Converter for Bringing Win32 Apps to ... by khedoros on Wednesday March 30, 2016 @03:38PM (#11392287)
To me, "app" was just short for "application", and it usually implied something more than a program. A program was more of an individual binary and its data files. An application could be a suite of programs; basically, it was a superset of "program" that could include multiple binaries acting toward a common purpose.

An "App" (mobile-style) is a new word. It implies (again, to me) a sandboxed program with a simplified, single-window, full-screen UI.

The same 3 letters (app) have been used my entire life to refer to computer programs, but the connotation has shifted a lot.

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Re:Microsoft Announces Converter for Bringing Win32 Apps to ... by mikeash on Wednesday March 30, 2016 @04:18PM (#11392624)
It seems pretty constant to me. It has always meant a user-facing program that's largely self-contained. It's not synonymous with "program," but since this story is about converting stuff for the Windows Store, I think it's being used correctly here.
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