<!DOCTYPE html>
<html class="client-nojs vector-feature-night-mode-disabled vector-feature-language-in-header-enabled vector-feature-language-in-main-page-header-disabled vector-feature-page-tools-pinned-disabled vector-feature-toc-pinned-clientpref-1 vector-feature-main-menu-pinned-disabled vector-feature-limited-width-clientpref-1 vector-feature-limited-width-content-enabled vector-feature-custom-font-size-clientpref-1 vector-feature-appearance-pinned-clientpref-1 vector-sticky-header-enabled" lang="en" dir="ltr"><head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Operating context</title>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<link rel="canonical" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_context"> <link href="./mw/skins.vector.icons.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
<link href="./mw/skins.vector.search.codex.styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
<link href="./mw/skins.vector.styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
<link href="./mw/user.styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
<meta name="ResourceLoaderDynamicStyles" content="">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./mw/site.styles.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./mw/noscript.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./footer.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./vector-2022.css">
</head>
<body class="skin--responsive skin-vector skin-vector-search-vue mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject page-Operating_context rootpage-Operating_context skin-vector-2022 action-view">
<div class="mw-page-container">
<div class="mw-page-container-inner">
<div class="mw-content-container">
<main id="content" class="mw-body">
<header class="mw-body-header vector-page-titlebar">
<h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading mw-first-heading">
<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Operating context</span></span>
</h1>
</header>
<a id="top"></a>
<div id="bodyContent" class="vector-body ve-init-mw-desktopArticleTarget-targetContainer" aria-labelledby="firstHeading" data-mw-ve-target-container="">
<div id="mw-content-text" class="mw-body-content mw-content-ltr" lang="en" dir="ltr"><div class="mw-content-ltr mw-parser-output" lang="en" dir="ltr"><p>An <b>operating context</b> (<b>OC</b>) for an application is the external environment that influences its operation. For a mobile application, the OC is defined by the hardware and software environment in the device, the target user, and other constraints imposed by various other stakeholders, such as a carrier.
</p><p>This concept differs from the <a href="Operating_system" title="Operating system">operating system</a> (OS) by the impact of these various other stakeholders.
</p>
<meta property="mw:PageProp/toc">
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Example">Example</h2></div>
<p>Here is an example of one device, with one operating system, changing its operating context without changing the OS.
</p><p>A user with a <a href="Mobile_phone" title="Mobile phone">mobile phone</a> changes <a href="SIM_card" title="SIM card">SIM cards</a>, removing card A, and inserting card B. The phone will now make any <a href="Telecommunications_network" title="Telecommunications network">network</a> calls over <a href="Cell_phone_carrier" class="mw-redirect" title="Cell phone carrier">cell phone carrier</a> B's network, rather than A's.
</p><p>Any applications running on the phone will run in a new operating context, and will often have to change functionality to adapt to the abilities, and business logic, of the new carrier. The network, spectrum, and wireless protocol all change in this example. These changes must be reflected back to the user, so the user knows what experience to expect, and thus these changes all change the <a href="User_interface" title="User interface">user interface</a> (UI) also.
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Hardware_agnostic_context">Hardware agnostic context</h2></div>
<style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236090951">
/* start https://en.wikipedia.org/ */
.mw-parser-output .hatnote{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output div.hatnote{padding-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .hatnote i{font-style:normal}.mw-parser-output .hatnote+link+.hatnote{margin-top:-0.5em}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .hatnote{display:none!important}}
/* end https://en.wikipedia.org/ */
</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">See also: <a href="Cross-platform_software" title="Cross-platform software">Cross-platform software</a></div>
<p>Situations exist where one can program in a context, with less concern about what hardware it will actually run on. Examples include Flash and <a href="Android_(operating_system)" title="Android (operating system)">Android</a>.
</p><p>Unfortunately, it also quite common that code in a hardware free context will see hardware specific bugs. This is common with software written for, that interacts more directly with, <a href="Personal_computer" title="Personal computer">personal computer</a> (PC) hardware, or <a href="Mobile_phone" title="Mobile phone">mobile phones</a>.
</p>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>
<ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~damithch/df/device-fragmentation.htm">Fragmentation of Mobile Applications</a> Operating context is defined in this article</li></ul>
<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2></div>
<ul><li><a href="List_of_operating_systems" title="List of operating systems">List of operating systems</a></li>
<li><a href="Comparison_of_operating_systems" title="Comparison of operating systems">Comparison of operating systems</a></li>
<li><a href="Operational_context" title="Operational context">Operational context</a></li></ul>
<style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1271159938">
/* start https://en.wikipedia.org/ */
.mw-parser-output .asbox{position:relative;overflow:hidden}.mw-parser-output .asbox table{background:transparent}.mw-parser-output .asbox p{margin:0}.mw-parser-output .asbox p+p{margin-top:0.25em}.mw-parser-output .asbox-body{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output .asbox-note{font-size:smaller}.mw-parser-output .asbox .navbar{position:absolute;top:-0.75em;right:1em;display:none}.mw-parser-output :not(p):not(.asbox)+style+.asbox,.mw-parser-output :not(p):not(.asbox)+link+.asbox{margin-top:3em}
/* end https://en.wikipedia.org/ */
</style></div><!--htdig_noindex--><div><div class="zim-footer">
This article is issued from <a class="external text" title="Last edited on 2020-07-08" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?title=Operating_context&oldid=966671478">Wikipedia</a>. The text is available under <a class="external text" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en">Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0</a> unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.
</div>
</div><!--/htdig_noindex--></div>
</div>
</main>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body></html>