application program

application program

Any data entry, update, query or report program that processes data for the user. It includes the generic productivity software (spreadsheets, word processors, database programs, etc.) as well as custom and packaged programs for payroll, billing, inventory and other accounting purposes. For a list of major application software categories, see application software. See also program. Contrast with system program.

Application Programs

This diagram shows the typical application programs that run in a desktop computer. It also shows the major components of the operating system.

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application program [‚ap·lə′kā·shən ‚prō·grəm]

(computer science)

A program written to solve a specific problem, produce a specific report, or update a specific file.

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(programming, operating system)

application program - (Or "application", "app") A complete, self-contained program that performs a specific function directly for the user. This is in contrast to system software such as the operating system kernel, server processes, libraries which exists to support application programs and utility programs. Editors for various kinds of documents, spreadsheets, and text formatters are common examples of applications. Network applications include clients such as those for FTP, electronic mail, telnet and WWW. The term is used fairly loosely, for instance, some might say that a client and server together form a distributed application, others might argue that editors and compilers were not applications but utility programs for building applications. One distinction between an application program and the operating system is that applications always run in user mode (or "non-privileged mode"), while operating systems and related utilities may run in supervisor mode (or "privileged mode"). The term may also be used to distinguish programs which communicate via a graphical user interface from those which are executed from the command line.