TWO questions: terminology and a software recommendation

[jackacohen]

I've done a LOT of programming (starting with Fortran II - anyone here old enough to remember that?) and progessing through BASIC (various versions), LISP, PROLOG, etc., up to javascript today (not a "proramming" language, I know.) But it has ALL been completely self-taught.

So my first queston is "What's the difference between a "program" and an "application"? (I'm starting to make some of my work public and I want to use the right words.)
Please give a TECHNICAL answer.

Second, I've ben using the default Windows search utility to find text files on my computers which contain certain phrases. But that tool searches audio files (GIGAbytes of them) and graphics and executable files every time.

Is there a search engine where I can set it to ignore certain folders? (I'm searching multiple drives, so it's a lot of work to search each possible folder, one at a time.) Even specifying the extension for the desired files won't work in the Windows tool, since the files to be searched include doc, txt, wpd, rtf, htm and several other extensions I use privately for programs I wrote myself.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

[ray326]

"What's the difference between a "program" and an "application"?Nothing in general.
Is there a search engine where I can set it to ignore certain folders?Look at the Google Desktop.

[jackacohen]

Let me rephrase my first question: what is the difference between the ways in which the two terms are being USED today?

(I knew that "underneath" they were really the same thing - even javascript, used for "stand-alone applications", creates what is clearly a "program" even though js is not a "programming language.")

And a request for a SECOND recommendation: I'm looking for a copy utility (like Briefcase, but without the autosynch) which, told to copy one folder to another folder of the same name replaces (whether by default or an option setting) ONLY those files for which the version to be copied has a more recent date than the file with the same name that it is/would be copied to.

[mdjo]

I've done a LOT of programming (starting with Fortran II - anyone here old enough to remember that?) and progessing through BASIC (various versions), LISP, PROLOG, etc., up to javascript today (not a "proramming" language, I know.) But it has ALL been completely self-taught.

Hey, you may even be before my time. I started with Fortran IV. Did you ever use SNOBOL? Perhaps the most concise language ever.

I have fond memories of the day we replaced our 310-baud ASR 33 teletypes with 1200-baud DecWriters. I remember telling a friend, "Wow, these things can print faster than you can READ it!!"

Paper tape is coming back, you know.

But anyway ...

So my first queston is "What's the difference between a "program" and an "application"? (I'm starting to make some of my work public and I want to use the right words.)
Please give a TECHNICAL answer.

I think "application" is not a term that has a strictly-defined answer. In general, I think people use the term "application" to refer to a collection of one or more programs that solve a particular business problem. Like, the "payroll application" may include a data entry program, a reporting program, a program to interface to the benefits application, etc. But then you get into the difference between "program" and "module", which I think also does not have a single universally-accepted definition. And "compilation unit".

*I* generally refer to each language source file as both a "compilation unit" and a "module", a related group of modules as a program, and a related group of programs as an application. But others may make more technical distinctions.


Second, I've ben using the default Windows search utility to find text files on my computers which contain certain phrases. But that tool searches audio files (GIGAbytes of them) and graphics and executable files every time.

Is there a search engine where I can set it to ignore certain folders? (I'm searching multiple drives, so it's a lot of work to search each possible folder, one at a time.) Even specifying the extension for the desired files won't work in the Windows tool, since the files to be searched include doc, txt, wpd, rtf, htm and several other extensions I use privately for programs I wrote myself.

I recently ran across the opposite problem: In Windows XP, the search utility excludes any file types not on it's list of types to search. And it ignores any text within those files that it concludes is non-display, the specific example I found mentioned on MSN being comments in HTML files. Like, yes, why would any developer ever want to do a search on the contents of comments fields?

You can limit your search to a specific directory tree, or you can give file extensions as the "part of file name". That's the approach I generally take. I don't know what the specific examples are that you're running into, but I usually want to search certain specific file types, like I know it's a word doc or I know it's a java program or whatever. So just putting file name = ".doc" generally does the trick for me. I suppose if you had an audio file named "myfavoritesong.doc.wav" it would still search it, but that should be pretty rare.

[ray326]

I believe that ASR-33 was running 110. I don't recall ever seeing a 310 standard, just 300. [OK, now for some reason this place doesn't like my Enter key for making paragraphs. :( ] <br> I think I have to give the "concise" award to APL. :D

[mdjo]

I believe you're right, my senile old brain was jumbling together two numbers. Now I'm trying to remember ... did our ASR-33s have a switch to let them operate at 110 or 300, or was it that the Dec Writer could operate at 300 or 1200? Or maybe both. I was thinking there was something with a speed a little over 300, like 330 or something like that. Ah well, I'll have to spend the rest of the day researching this on the Web ... :)

[ray326]

That was back in the day when I was working for Carterfone. One branch of the company did printer (teletype/decwriter/line printer) maintenance. The branch I was in built a custom computer for a CAM company called MDSI. Those were the days of the 8080.

[ZeroKilled]

look the answer that the wikipedia provide for the two term:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_software
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_program

i hasn't finished yet reading, suddenly bored me. however, look like program is the code being processed directly by a processor or the code itself. while application is what end user use to interact, the product. at the end, i guess we human use both word with the same meaning.