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Software Engineering vocabulary · Web, Mobile and Interface Development

Cold start

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

nounCommon term

In software engineering, cold start means: Launching an app when it is not already in memory, so the system has to create everything from the beginning; it is the slowest kind of app launch.

In Turkish: soğuk başlatma, cold start

How it is used

Compared with warm and hot starts, when the app or parts of it are still in memory. Teams measure cold start time, try to reduce the work done at launch and track it in Google Play vitals and Xcode Organizer.

Example sentences

  1. Cold start takes four seconds because we load every SDK at launch.

  2. After the fix, cold start time dropped below one second on mid-range phones.

Common collocations

  • cold start time
  • warm start
  • reduce cold start
  • app launch time
  • app lifecycleThe series of states an app moves through from launch to being closed, such as active, in the background or suspended, and the events the system sends at each change.
  • splash screenThe first screen people see while an app starts, usually showing the logo on a plain background until the main content is ready.
  • main threadThe thread on which an app draws its interface and handles user input; if slow work runs there, the app freezes and stops responding.
  • SDKShort for software development kit: a package of libraries, tools and documentation that helps developers build on a platform or use a service.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Web, Mobile and Interface Development

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