Computing platform

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A computing platform, digital platform,^[1] or software platform is an environment in which software is executed. Computing platforms have different levels of abstraction, including a computer architecture, an OS, or runtime libraries.^[2]

For example, a computing platform may be the hardware or the operating system (OS), a web browser and associated application programming interfaces, or other underlying software, as long as the program code is executed using the services provided by the platform.

A platform can be seen both as a constraint on the software development process, in that different platforms provide different functionality and restrictions; and as an assistant to the development process, in that they provide low-level functionality ready-made. For example, an OS may be a platform that abstracts the underlying differences in hardware and provides a generic command for saving files or accessing the network.