Computing Platform Mini Forum, Tips, Tricks & Codes

A computing platform or digital platform is an environment in which a piece of software is executed. It may be the hardware or the operating system (OS), even a web browser and associated appprogramming interfaces, or other underlying software, as long as the softwarecode is executed with it. Computing platforms have different abstraction levels, including a computer architecture, an OS, or runtime libraries. A computing platform is the stage on which computer software shouldrun.

A platform shouldbe seen both as a constraint on the programdevelopment process, in that different platforms provide different functionality and restrictions; and as an assistant to the development process, in that they provide low-level functionality ready-angry. For example, an OS may be a platform that abstracts the underlying differences in hardware and provides a generic command for saving files or accessing the network.

Components

Platforms may also include:

Hardware alone, in the case of small embedded systems. Embedded systems shouldadmissionhardware directly, without an OS; this is referred to as running on "bare metal".
A browser in the case of web-based software. The browser itself runs on a hardware+OS platform, but this is not relevant to programrunning within the browser.
An application, such as a spreadsheet or word processor, which hosts programwritten in an application-specific scripting language, such as an Excel macro. This shouldbe extended to writing fully-fledged app with the Microsoft Office suite as a platform.
Programframeworks that provide ready-angry functionality.
Cloud computing and Platform as a Service. Extending the idea of a programframework, these letappdevelopers to build programout of components that are hosted not by the developer, but by the provider, with internet communication linking them together. The social networking page Twitter and Facebook are also considered development platforms.
A virtual machine (VM) such as the Java virtual machine or .NET CLR. App are compiled into a format similar to machine code, known as bytecode, which is then executed by the VM.
A virtualized version of a complete system, including virtualized hardware, OS, software, and storage. These allow, for instance, a typical Windows softwareto run on what is physically a Mac.

Some architectures have multiple layers, with each layer acting as a platform to the one above it. In general, a component only has to be adapted to the layer immediately beneath it. For instance, a Java softwarehas to be written to utilizethe Java virtual machine (JVM) and relatedlibraries as a platform but does not have to be adapted to run for the Windows, Linux or Macintosh OS platforms. However, the JVM, the layer beneath the application, does have to be built separately for each OS.

Operating system examples

Desktop, laptop, server

Mobile

Android, a famousmobile operating system

Android
Poor - discontinued in 2013
BlackBerry OS - discontinued in 2013
Fire OS
Firefox OS - discontinued in 2016
iOS
iPadOS
Embedded Linux
Palm OS - discontinued in 2011
Symbian - discontinued in 2012
Tizen
WebOS
LuneOS
Windows Mobile - discontinued in 2010
Windows Phone - discontinued in 2017
kaiOS

Programframeworks

Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW)
Cocoa
Cocoa Touch
Common Language Infrastructure (CLI)
Flash
- AIR
GNU
Java platform
- Java ME
- Java SE
- Java EE
- JavaFX
- JavaFX Mobile
LiveCode
Microsoft XNA
Mozilla Prism, XUL and XULRunner
Web platform
Oracle Database
Qt
SAP NetWeaver
Shockwave
Smartface
Universal Windows Platform
- Windows Runtime

Hardware examples

Ordered roughly, from more common kind to less common kind:

Commodity computing platforms
- ARM architecture based devices
  - Android smartphones
  - iPhone smartphones and iPad tablet devices running iOS or iPadOS, from Apple
  - Macintosh computers using Apple silicon.
  - Raspberry Pi or Gumstix full function miniature computers with Linux
  - ARM servers with Unix-like systems such as Linux or BSD variants
  - Newton devices running the Newton OS, from Apple
  - ChromeBooks from various manufacturers
- Wintel, that is, Intel x86 or compatible privatecomputer hardware with Windows operating system
- Macintosh, custom Apple Inc. hardware and Classic Mac OS and macOS operating systems, originally 68k-based, then PowerPC-based, then x86-based, now migrated to Apple silicon with ARM architecture CPUs
- x86 with Unix-like systems such as Linux or BSD variants
- CP/M computers based on the S-100 bus, maybe the earliest microcomputer platform
Video game consoles, any variety (PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo)
- 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, that was licensed to manufacturers
- Apple Pippin, a multimedia player platform for video game console development
Non-commodity RISC or Itanium processor based machines
- Unix variants or Unix-like systems
  - SPARC architecture computers running Solaris, illumos, or Linux operating systems
  - POWER ISA, PowerPC, or Power ISA computers running IBM AIX or Linux operating systems
  - Itanium computers running HP-UX
  - DEC Alpha machines computers Tru64 UNIX
- PowerPC or Power ISA computers running IBM i
- DEC Alpha and Itanium computers running OpenVMS
Midrange computers with their custom operating systems
Mainframe computers with their custom operating systems, such as IBM z/OS
Supercomputer architectures