Chapter Two: Speaking in Code

Software platforms come in several varieties, depending on what the code does and where among the various computing devices it resides. Some have a single block of code that does everything from controlling the switches in the microprocessors to helping applications show three-dimensional objects. When you play Doom 3 on your Apple PC, the Mac OS X code is doing a lot of the work. Others come in pieces. There is code on the device that controls the microprocessor. Then there is another piece that provides services to programmers who are writing applications for the device. The Nokia Series 60 Platform is what mobile phone applications use for many software services. The Nokia platform in turn relies on the Symbian OS to control the phone hardware.