AOL!
= A =
arena
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.
--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.