Different Types of Applications

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Different Types of Applications

In this article, I am going to discuss Different Types of Applications that we can develop using a programming language. Please read our previous article where we discussed How Computer Programs Work in detail. At the end of this article, you will understand mostly what are Standalone applications and what are web applications, and the differences between them.

Different Types of Applications

There are 2 types of applications:

1. Standalone Applications
2. Web Applications

What are standalone applications?

The application which we are installing on our computer is called a standalone application. To work with any application, if you install that software into your computer then it is called a standalone application. For Example, if you want to play some videos, generally we are using VLC Media PLAYER. To create documentation or PowerPoint presentation we generally go for MS Office. To browse something from the internet we are using Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. All these are standalone applications.

The standalone application is always compatible with a single operating system. We have to specify which operating system we are using, which is important. So, the Application which is always dependent on an operating system is called a Standalone Application.

What are web applications?

Without installing any software on our machine, if we are working with the software using a web browser, then it is called a web application. Regularly we are using gmail.com, facebook.com, YouTube, and google.com, we don’t need to install these applications on our machine before using them. It is independent of the operating system, that is not dependent on a particular operating system. So, we only need is a web browser like Google Chrome. Mozilla Firefox, Opera, etc.

File extensions:

The different standalone application understands different types of file extensions. The Txt file extension is understandable by the notepad application and the Mp4 file extension is understandable by the VLC Media Player application.

Operating System extensions:

Like file extensions, the operating system also has some extensions which are called OS extensions. For example, if we are using the Windows Operating System, the Windows operating system understands only .exe files.

If you are using Mac Operating System, the extension is a dot dmg file and if you are using Linux operating system, the extension will be .rpm. So, different operating systems understand different types of extensions.

Programming Languages are Standalone Application or a Web Application?

The question is whether programming languages are standalone applications or web applications. All programming languages are standalone applications. That is the Installation of the application is mandatory on the machine.

Platform-Dependent and Platform-Independent Language

Using any platform-dependent language, we can develop only standalone applications. So, using C and C++ language, we can only develop standalone applications. We can develop only standalone applications because these languages are platform-dependent languages. Java, C#, PHP, etc. languages are platform-independent languages, so using platform-independent languages we can develop both standalone applications and web applications.

C is mainly used for embedded system programming. The best gaming library is available in C++. Java and .NET languages are used to develop enterprise-level applications for example web applications like ICICI Bank, IRCTC, Facebook, etc.

In the next article, I am going to discuss Programming Methodologies in detail. Here, in this article, I try to explain Different Types of Applications that we can develop using Programming Languages and I hope you enjoy this Different Types of Application article.