What are Application Environments?
We’ve discussed how being a developer entails writing instructions to create and run an application. These applications can run on various platforms such as mobile, desktop, and web.
Applications for each platform run on a different “environment.”
An environment is basically where an application “runs.”
Mircosoft OneNote for desktop runs via macOS (for Mac
users).
Mircosoft OneNote for mobile runs via iOS (for iPhone
users).
Mircosoft OneNote for the web runs via Chrome (for Chrome
users).
If you were to open the Microsoft OneNote applications across various platforms, you would notice that the app has a similar look, feel, and functionality. However, you will likely be able to spot some differences.
There are a couple of obvious reasons for this.
-
Each platform varies in the size of its applications. For example, a phone is a much different size than a desktop/laptop. Applications have to adapt as the size of a device changes (since there is not as much room to play with on a smaller screen).
-
Each platform has different means by which a user interacts with its applications. For example, hone users tap and swipe versus clicking and scrolling.
-
Each platform might represent a different demographic of users, and intelligent designers craft an experience that is optimal for a given demographic.
However, there is a bigger reason for the differences.
Each environment requires unique instructions in order to create an application.
For each environment, there are differences in the instructions for how the application is “launched.”
For a desktop application, an application icon will appear on the bar with all your other applications. A desktop window opens with a certain size.
For a mobile application, the application takes up the entire device. A splash screen appears before the application is loaded and ready to be interacted with.
For a web application, the application is running on a separate tab of the web browser. The size of the application is whatever is the size of the web browser.
We do not need to be coding experts to understand that there is clearly different stuff going on, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that each environment requires unique instructions in order to run an application.
Make It Stick
Open an application, like Microsoft OneNote, that is available on multiple platforms. Compare and contrast the differences you observe.
Elements and Application Environments
Every application is composed of basic elements. Elements are the “building blocks” that you observe and interact within an application.
There are some common elements that are in standard applications regardless of platform. For example, there are texts (headings, paragraphs, etc.), buttons, images, checkboxes, and the like.
However, some platforms have unique types of elements. For example, mobile applications running on an iPhone (iOS) have a “status bar” element:
The point is that each platform has different ways you create “elements” to “build” your application. Especially since each platform can have different types of elements, it makes sense that creating elements to build an application will vary between platforms.
In the next chapter, we’ll learn how to create elements for building a web application, since that is the platform we’re interested in.
Make It Stick
Once again, open an application, like Microsoft OneNote, that is available on multiple platforms. See if you can write down some elements that appear to make up the application on each platform. What are the similarities? What are the differences?
