A standalone program is any program that can run without being installed. It tries to draw some distinction between programs invoked by some computer event and those invoked by other programs.
However this distinction does not stand up to scrutiny outside the context of certain embedded systems, since the computer usually has to be running some program that prepares (and sometimes initially processes) the "stand-alone" program to begin with. An embedded system is a special-purpose Computer system designed to perform one or a few dedicated functions often with Real-time computing constraints Hence all programs are launched or prepared/processed by other programs (with the sole exception of the bootstrap loader), and no code can really be said to stand alone. In Computing, booting ( booting up) is a bootstrapping process that starts Operating systems when the user turns on a Computer system
If "stand-alone" is more widely defined as a program not needing the services of other programs (except maybe firmware) once it is running, then most operating systems can also justifiably be called "stand-alone", since they need the bootstrap loader only for starting up. In Computing, firmware is a computer program that is Embedded in a hardware device for example a Microcontroller. An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Normal applications are called "hosted applications" in contrast.
In some embedded systems, the one and only application that they run is truly stand-alone, in the sense that it includes all the code that's ever going to be seen by the CPU of those systems. This kind of application has to contain its own (possibly very basic) operating system. An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination
A distinction might be drawn between programs that run as operating system processes and those that are loaded as an add-on in the context of an existing process, e. In computing a process is an instance of a Computer program that is being sequentially executed by a computer system that has the ability to run several computer g. a plugin. This distinction may make some sense, but the term "stand-alone" has been used inconsistently: for instance, on the Macintosh platform, the plugin code has often been referred to as being stand-alone. Macintosh, commonly nicknamed Mac is a Brand name which covers several lines of Personal computers designed developed and marketed by Apple Inc
A less ambiguous terminology refers to application and non-application code, since "application" seems to be a commonly-accepted cross-platform term for a program that runs as a separate process and is invoked as a direct result of some user action. Application software is a subclass of Computer software that employs the capabilities of a computer directly and thoroughly to a task that the user wishes to perform The "non-application" code then has to be loaded and run as part of the process context of the "application" code, and there is no ambiguity about which is which.
Other usages
- In XML, the standalone attribute in the XML declaration (or "prolog") indicates than an XML instance is impervious to the effects of changes in an external declaration. Don't change "Extensible" This usually entails that the instance does not use entity references beyond the five built-in entities, explicitly gives the values of all attributes, and is invariant with respect to whitespace normalization.
- In computer games, a stand-alone game is one that can be played without requiring another game to provide most of its operating code (as opposed to an expansion pack or a mod, which adds to a previous game). A personal computer Game (also known as a computer game or simply PC game) is a Video game played on a Personal computer, rather An expansion pack, expansion set, or supplement is an addition to an existing Role-playing game, Tabletop game or Video game. Mod or modification is a term generally applied to Computer games especially First-person shooters RPGs and Real-time strategy games
- Computers themselves are often termed "stand-alone" if they are not connected to a network. Computer networking is the Engineering Discipline concerned with communication between Computer systems or devices Networking routers
- In serial fiction, such as a television series or comic books, stand-alone refers to a story that is unrelated or unconnected to the broader plots of the overall series; it "stands alone" and can be enjoyed without detailed knowledge of the rest of the series (or of storylines that are active at the time of the "stand-alone" material's release), or missed without impacting one's understanding of the series. A television program (US television programme (UK or television show (U A comic book (often shortened to simply comic and sometimes called a comic paper or comic magazine) is a Magazine or Book of narrative
- In molecular biology, the term "stand-alone protein domain" refers to protein domains that exist as a single domain, and as such are believed to perform a single function. Molecular biology is the study of Biology at a molecular level Sometimes, these domains are also found in a non-stand-alone context, fused to other protein domains that have a different function. Well-known examples of stand-alone domains are ligand-sensing regulatory domains, that exist as single-domain proteins, but also fused to other domains as part of multi-domain proteins, such as enzymes or transcriptional regulators.
- In baking, the term refers to cupcakes molds that do not need a cupcake pan to hold themselves up. Baking is the technique of prolonged Cooking of Food by dry heat acting by conduction, and not by radiation, normally in an Oven,
See also
References
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