a library or set of libraries upon which many applications can be built or built upon

a methodology and set of software libraries that allows software developers to build applications

a superset of a class library

a very complex reusable widget comprised of many objects each providing services to the application

A set of class es that provide a core structure from which to build a complete application. The VisualWorks application framework includes the ApplicationModel class and its subclass es, the UIBuilder class, policy classes for various platform "look-and-feels," and classes for the various widget s and value model

In computer programming, an application framework is a term usually used to refer to a set of libraries or classes that are used to implement the standard structure of an application for a specific operating system. By bundling a large amount of reusable code into a framework, much time is saved for the developer, since he/she is saved the task of rewriting large amounts of standard code for each new application that is developed. Application frameworks became popular with the rise of the graphical user interface (GUI), since these tended to promote a standard structure for applications.