In
computer programming, an application framework is a
software framework that is used to implement the standard structure of an
application for a specific
operating system. Application frameworks became popular with the rise of the
graphical user interface (GUI), since these tended to promote a standard structure for applications. It is also much simpler to create automatic GUI creation tools when a standard framework is used, since the underlying code structure of the application is known in advance.
Object-oriented programming techniques are usually used to implement frameworks such that the unique parts of an application can simply inherit from pre-existing classes in the framework.
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