App System vs Application
- System programs are used by the computer for its own operations.
- Operating system programs.
- Language compiler programs.
- Utility programs: editors, sort utilities, text search tools, file display programs, etc.
- Application programs perform some user-oriented data processing task.
- Payroll programs.
- Customer tracking programs.
- Inventory programs.
- Accounting programs: accounts receivable programs, accounts payable programs, etc.
- Game programs.
System programs are written by the computer manufacturer, or some third-party company, to make the computer useful to users. Operating system programs allow us to use the computer without having to speak the binary language that is the computer's "native tongue," or know the mundane details of its hardware configuration. Language compiler programs take the computer programs we write and translate them into the language that the computer understands.
Utility programs can be thought of as a subset of system programs. Over the years, programmers have written programs for many common tasks that are performed so frequently — sorting, searching, editing text, and such — that many computer manufacturers include these system utility programs with their computers.
Application programs are the programs we write on the user side. We want to use the computer to help our company do its business better and faster. So, we write computer programs to track, process, and format the data in ways that are useful to the business goals. Whether it is to process employee data, customer data, corporate data, whatever, these programs typically perform an application — or process — that is useful to our company and are written by the programmers employed by the company.