• Sculptus Poe@lemmy.world
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    15 days ago

    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.

    • GamingChairModel@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      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:

      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.

      • 0x0@lemmy.zip
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        15 days ago

        to develop applications for the Microsoft Windows operating system.

        Could they have meat “uses for the MS…”?

      • Gismonda@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        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)