What makes a program 'powerful'?

[SLEEPER_V]

As a noob, I have always wondered what makes one program 'powerful' and another not so powerful. Anyone care to give an opinion?

[Psumi]

When it becomes widely used.

IE: Windows.

[Frak]

I think it's subjective, but to me it would be the ability to fully complete the job with very little to no error. For instance, AutoCAD isn't easy to use for somebody who has never done CAD work, but for those of us who have, it's a very powerful piece of software. The terminal, some of us know how to use it to it's full potential, and for that it's powerful.

[samh785]

As a noob, I have always wondered what makes one program 'powerful' and another not so powerful. Anyone care to give an opinion?
I interpret it as meaning that the program is faster, or can do more than competing software that attempts to accomplish a similar task.

[JDShu]

When it can do Lots of Stuff

[Xbehave]

When it can do Lots of Stuff
+1 it's that simple

[lisati]

As a noob, I have always wondered what makes one program 'powerful' and another not so powerful. Anyone care to give an opinion?

A good program is easy to use and gets the job done.

[amingv]

I'd say: It's a program that does it job well and, to it's user, better than the alternatives. So I agree with Frak that it's subjective.

This can be different for every kind of program: a powerful compiler may optimize code and reduce compiling time; a powerful word processor may be compatible with a wide range of formats, work cleanly and maybe even have some form of artificial intelligence to correct grammar/spelling according to context; a powerful file compressor shrinks the files the most, in less time and with the least possible losses; and so forth.

[3rdalbum]

When it can do Lots of Stuff

+2 (as long as it's relevant to the task).

[Xbehave]

A good program is easy to use and gets the job done.

+2 (as long as it's relevant to the task).
ease of use is not a requirement for power, for good perhaps but for power functionality tumps all. e.g the linux is much more powerful than os X

[JBAlaska]

Being able to fully utilize CPUs with multiple multithreading cores...While running on a dead badger..

[lisati]

ease of use is not a requirement for power, <snip>
But it helps..... It's no good having a program with all the most wonderful bells and whistles you could possibly need if you can't figure out how to use it.

[SLEEPER_V]

When it can do Lots of Stuff

the how come programs are called 'simple, but powerful'?

[JDShu]

the how come programs are called 'simple, but powerful'?

Is there a problem with that?

[ticopelp]

Stability, usability, flexbility, extensibility, support. Not necessarily in that order.

[Barrucadu]

When it can do more or less all things in its particular niche you could want to do, and do them well and efficiently.

eg: ffmpeg is powerful as you can do pretty much everything you could want to do with audio/video files with the right combination of parameters. imagemagick is powerful because it provides programs to do, again, pretty much everything you could want to do with image files. MS Paint is not powerful as it can only do a tiny subset of what you could want to do with image files.

[SLEEPER_V]

Is there a problem with that?
no, but it means your definition is inaccurate, unless there is some meaning in your definition that I am missing.

[JDShu]

no, but it means your definition is inaccurate, unless there is some meaning in your definition that I am missing.

haha "Simple, but powerful" using my definition, would mean "Simple, but does Lots of Stuff". Simple in the context probably means "Easy to Use". So substituting this definition in, you would get:

"Easy to Use, but does Lots of Stuff"

[SLEEPER_V]

haha "Simple, but powerful" using my definition, would mean "Simple, but does Lots of Stuff". Simple in the context probably means "Easy to Use". So substituting this definition in, you would get:

"Easy to Use, but does Lots of Stuff"

that makes sense.