Why there's both a netstandard and netstandardapp TFM's?

Question

In the new .NET Platform Standard we have the netstandard TFM (Target Framework Moniker) which allows us to target one specific version of the standard. This gives access to the available API's on that version in our code.

Apart from the netstandard TFM we also have the netstandardapp. I didn't get it. Why do we need those two? If we want to target the .NET Platform Standard don't we just need to target the netstandard TFM?

Answer 1

Think of it as the difference between a class library--netstandard--and a console app--netstandardapp. There is currently no difference in terms of APIs.

In theory, netstandardapp could include an additional app model (or APIs) for console apps. This would be similar to how uap adds the Universal Windows app model to netstandard.

Personally, I think it's a case of YAGNI too, but I'm pretty sure this is the reasoning behind it.