There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about win32 applications.

I just wanted to point out that if you're compiling on a 32-bit windows system and you're using a 32-bit compiler (or 32-bit compiling mode), you will end up with a win32 application regardless whether it utilizes the windows API or if it's just a console application.

If you're compiling with a 16-bit DOS compiler, THEN it wouldn't be considered a win32 application.

A lot of places I've seen use "win32" would be more precise if it were "win api".

Not trying to be an jerk, just letting people know. :)

I knew about that but I thought that Win32 stands for Windows32 (and I'm still sure it does :P ). And since a console is (in my eyes) more Dos then Windows I thought you wouldn't really consider a console as "Win" application so not as "Win32" but more as "Console32".

I don't know why we say it like that. I guess someone used the term somewhere and it just stuck.

Plus it sounds cooler anyway ^_^

I don't know why people here use those terms. I guess it would be most accurate to refer to Windows and ANSI apps, sinc e the only difference is in portability.

Most of the time you hear Win32 applications it refers to Win32 API, and not console applications.