Platform vs Framework

Lot of friends of mine has asked me a question. What is the difference between a Platform and a Framework?. Some are merely confused on the different naming conventions uses in different technology specialists in their blogs as well as in job interview question.

I came across a nice answer, of course through some internet search and research etc..

As per Wikipedia:

“A software framework is a re-usable design for a software system (or subsystem). A software framework may include support programs, code libraries, a scripting language, or other software to help develop and glue together the different components of a software project. Various parts of the framework may be exposed through an API.”

Now lets come to the word Platfrom, As per oxford dictionary, the word platform means “Platform describes the type of computer system you are using, in connection with the type of software you can use on it.”

Well “In computing, a platform describes some sort of hardware architecture or software framework (including application frameworks), that allows software to run. Typical platforms include a computer’s architecture, operating system, programming languages and related runtime libraries or graphical user interface.”

A platform is a crucial element in software development. A platform might be simply defined as ‘a place to launch software’. It is an agreement that the platform provider gave to the software developer that logic code will interpret consistently as long as the platform is running on top of other platforms. Logic code includes byte code, source code, and machine code.

That’s cool to hear right.. The question is really on two development platform giants .NET and Java.

We call .NET Framework and JAVA Platform.. This is the reason we got  in to utter confusion.  To be precise about .NET, we should call it .NET Framework Platform or simply .NET Platform.   But in internet we usually term it as .NET Framework, we forgets the term PLATFORM in articles. and people are getting in to confusion and confusion leads to Chaos..

🙂 Have a great day…

Courtesy:  Wikipedia