Apologies for the simplified explanation that follows. I'm trying to explain the complexities rather than to define all of the possibilities.
In ye olde PC world, most systems of the 1980s and 1990s use a simple partitioning system. There is a Primary partition -- which is usually the only one -- and sometimes an Extended partition. The Extended partition is a container for Logical partitions which may be for data or for a different operating system. It is possible to monkey around with Logical partitions without destroying the Primary partition, but few people need to do it. When DOS + Windows was the popular OS choice, simple partitioning schemes were the norm.
This was limiting, of course, when Linux and the newer flavours of DOS/Windows plus Windows NT arrived. FIPS was an early partition manager, followed by more sophisticated tools such as Partition Magic or GNU Parted, the partitioner that accompanied most i386 Linux distros. Nowadays, tools like DiskPart (the built-in Windows partitioner) can perform all sorts of magic; the BitLocker partitioning scripts modify the partition tables on the disk that you use to run the OS.
In ye olde Mac world, Mac users use Apple's partitioning tools or a third party alternative. Most users create a single partition for the OS, applications and data, but behind the scenes, two partitions exist. One small partition contains the partition map describing how the disk is configured and this is always (?) at the start of the disk. The partition map tells Mac OS where to find partitions that Mac OS can use; you can have two or more bootable Mac OS partitions on a disk.
In theory, it is possible to edit the partition map and a few enthusiasts have done this. The logic of how to achieve this can be found in documentation for FIPS or similar. In theory, it is possible for a Mac disk partitioner to do this automagically but it is a risky process. If I were writing such a utility, I'd be very worried about the number of Mac disk partitioners and about how reliably I could interpret the partition map that they write.
Software Architects (Formatter Five and similar?) lasted longest in the Mac market for partitioning tools.