app

/ap/ , n. Short for application program , as opposed to a systems program.
Apps are what systems vendors are forever chasing developers to create for
their environments so they can sell more boxes. Hackers tend not to think of
the things they themselves run as apps; thus, in hacker parlance the term
excludes compilers, program editors, games, and messaging systems, though a
user would consider all those to be apps. (Broadly, an app is often a
self-contained environment for performing some well-defined task such as
word processing ; hackers tend to prefer more general-purpose tools.) See
killer app ; oppose tool , operating system.

