Whats the difference between a Utility and a Program

[bplus]

I thought I knew until I see all these posts under Programs that seem to me Utilities.

Keyboard, Popup menu, Old paper... none of these are full programs in my opinion but stuff to use in full programs.

[CharlieJV]

I thought I knew until I see all these posts under Programs that seem to me Utilities.

Keyboard, Popup menu, Old paper... none of these are full programs in my opinion but stuff to use in full programs.

I think it is all in the eye of the beholder.

To me:

"Utility" and "Software" are categories of program, or the categories of results from programming.

A utility is very simple in purpose/functionality/utility, and software is more grandiose.  All of these are to accomplish tasks.

Then there are programs that aren't about accomplishing tasks per say, but more about the enjoyment/entertainment/learning of programming them and/or running them.

So, just labels for classification, because lord knows we are nothing without having ways of classifying things.

For me, Notepad is a utility.  Wordpad is a much more functional utility.  MS Word is software.

[bplus]

Yeah Utility is not really what I mean because they can be full programs with complete purpose. 

I mean something more like a tool used to bring about some effect used in a program.

[SpriggsySpriggs]

I agree that it seems like some of the posts are not categorized correctly. I don't care too much but I do agree with you, bplus. Some of those things feel more like what I would consider to be a utility.

[Dav]

Well I guess I'm guilty this, but didn't realize it.  My thinking was utility = tool of some kind, and just about any program would be ok in programs.  I'll be more careful about posting in the right place.  

- Dav

[SMcNeill]

This  is the  type of thing where  a  square is a rectangle but a rectangle may not be square.

I see just about everything shared here to be a program.  If you can compile it, it's pretty much a "program".  The games, utilities, inform, and everything else  is just a distinct  subset of the catch-all "program".

For me, what makes something an "utility" is that it's a program sub/function/tool that can be used in other programs, or which tend to serve one simple and distinct purpose.

Example:  

CircleFill.   That's an utility program/tool.  It's not much use all by itself and really doesn't standalone as any sort of  true "program".  It's an utility which you use to help expand the usefulness of any program you want to write.  By itself, it's not an actual program; it's an utility to be used inside your programs.

A "mile to kilometer" conversion program would be something I'd consider an utility.  It serves one purpose, that purpose only, and is a simple little routine to do one thing.  Most likely it's all one set of functions/subs with a simple interface attached to showcase how to interact with it.  

Now, if one expands upon these and makes a CLOCK using circlefill and has it tracking time and playing coocoo sounds and doing extra stuff, it's no longer just an "utility".  It's now a clock program and is something much more complex and involved that a simple little utility program.

Same with some conversion program written in InForm that lets you convert distance, weight, times, computer storage amounts, ect, ect...  I'd personally consider it to be a "Program" at that point, but I could see where somebody else might just label it "Utility".  There's areas where we have overlap in the definition of things.

It's much like trying to define an object and deciding if you want to call it a "square", a "rectangle", a "quadrilateral", a "parallelogram", or a "rhombus".   Note that many objects fall can be defined into being ALL of those things at the same damn time!!

So we're not the biggest and pickiest folks at trying to force people to put square pegs into circular holes around here.  We tend to let people use their own judgement of where they thing something belongs.  It's more of a judgement call than anything else, and folks need to decide for themselves where something would fit best.

An example of this ambiguity would be with a lot of the stuff @Pete shares: https://qb64phoenix.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=3965

His "Quick Paste" certainly isn't configured to be something drop dead simple to just plug into another program.  It's not in a SUB or FUNCTION, so you can't just copy and paste it and make use of it as an utility for yourself.  But it IS a utility type program which basically just copies and pastes your login info for you.  So... It's an utility in that sense.  But it's also a stand-alone program.  

Personally, I wouldn't argue about it going into either of those subforums.  If it ended up in "Games" or "Christmas" so such, I'd quirk an eyebrow and probably end up moving it and wondering what the heck he was drinking, but otherwise, I wouldn't worry about it it to much personally.  Put it where it makes the most sense to you and then just don't worry about it.  I'd rather folks CODE something than worry excessively over "gosh, which forum should I put it in?!" 

 

[CharlieJV]

Something like CircleFill, I think of that as a subroutine (or a library function).

It all depends on what kind of hobby circle or career circle from which a person fills their experiences.  Puns...

[bert22306]

I think the most accurate comment was, "It's in the eye of the beholder."

If I wrote my own program to provide, say, the time of day and the elapsed time, in a nice-looking display, analog and digital, I would call that "one of my programs."

If Microsoft or other vendor provided such a program, most people would call it "a utility."

I guess a way to answer this question is to ask ourselves whether it's something that we would have expected, or at least not be surprised about, if it came bundled with Norton Utilities.

[Pete]

I think we should just merge the two forums into one... Call it, Post Your F****** Code.

Pete

[hsiangch_ong]

read this so-called book.  it's very funny.

https://web.mit.edu/~simsong/www/ugh.pdf

the difference between "program" and "utility" to an unix user back in the day?  there was none.  but it's my opinion and conclusion for having read most of that book.

basically the programs that came with ms-dos 5.  maybe except qbasic/edit were "utilities."  because one of them like "xcopy".  did a specific job, in this case, use available ram to copy files.  from one place to another as quickly as possible.  faster than "built-in copy" which was slow on floppies.

then the "programs" or "applications" began taking over.  becoming more complex and taking up more disk space.  but there really isn't a difference.  not even if they were all gui programs.