[cannam]

> No-one ever called a real program an "app" before that, did they?

Yes. Apple called them apps in the 80s, at least on the Mac - this is Apple II but it's plausible they were also referred to as apps there?

For my part I read the title as "Taking over a wall changed my direction as a programmer" which had me really confused for a while. I'd like to read that article, I think.

[musicale]

Apple (App-le?) certainly popularized abbreviating "applications programs" or "application software" (vs. system software, systems programs etc.) to "applications" in the 1980s, and "apps" with the advent of the App Store in 2008, but Apple was unsuccessful in trying to obtain and enforce an App Store trademark given prior uses of app, store, and app store (including, perhaps ironically given Steve Jobs' return and Apple's acquisition of NeXT, a store for NeXTSTEP apps.) "Killer App(lication)" dates to the 1980s, applying to software like VisiCalc for the Apple II.