Was it the iphone that replaced the word "program" with "application"?

[yoda313]

So did the Iphone by itself create the "application" or "apps" buzzword craze that is so prevalent now?

I mean "back in the day" most people would use the word "program" for something like excel or word or whatever. Nowadays it seems anything and everything you use on computers are being called "apps".

Is this mostly refined to phones and mobile devices or are the average joe and janes using the term application for everything now?

It kind of annoys me a little bit but I'm more curious than anything.

[guns1inger]

Application has been used for a long time. Apple co-opted the term 'App' to mean very small programs that don't have the features to make them worthy of the term 'Application'. Because the public thinks that iPhones/iPads and Android tabs are computers, and people are generally lazy in their use of language, Apps is becoming a commonly mis-used term. Outside of coders, I believe this is mostly because most people simple see anything electronic with a screen to be either a TV or a computer, and if it is a computer then it must run apps.

[yoda313]

@guns1inger - thanks.

I kinda figured that.

Also I guess the ad guys figure "apps" is a catchier shorthand than "progs"

Although proggie is funny sounding

[lordsmurf]

I was using the word "app" in late 1990s.
It was shorter than "software", "program" or "application".
The only difference between now and then is now more people understand what I'm referring to.

Even pre-iPhone, lots of web coding (Flash, Java, etc) were known as "apps".
To think it has anything to do with Apple or phones is revisionist.

Proggie or proggy sounds sissy. I refuse to use it.
Like a "fanny pack". I'd rather call it a man purse, before I call it a fanny pack!
I'm reminded of "Panny" for Panasonic DVD recorders.
Which in turn reminds me of "Annie" from Star Wars Episode I.

[yoda313]

@lordsmurf - I hope others here realize you were the one to bring in Star Wars to this conversation. I had nothing to do with it this time

I did not realize web based stuff was using the term apps that early on. I feel better about the transition now knowing more about some of the roots of this "evolution" of the terminology.

[lordsmurf]

Apps = applets = mini applications.
I remember hearing about Java apps almost 10 years ago now. A friend wrote one in 2002.

It's just new because you're not neck deep in code regularly. Not necessarily a bad thing.

Join us, come to the dark side.

[yoda313]

It's just new because you're not neck deep in code regularly. Not necessarily a bad thing.

That's understandable. It all matters where it started.

Join us, come to the dark side.

I'll never join the dark side! I won't join you!! NEVER!!

paraphrasing return of the jedi