Software

What is Software? 

DEFINITION

Software earns its name for what is not. It is not a “Hard”ware. Whatever is not hard is soft, and thus its name derived. Hardware came first—simply because the hard reality of machines and tools long before anyone thought of computers or of the concept of programming.

Software comprises abstract ideas. In computers, the term embraces not only the application programs you buy and other kind of software listed earlier but also the information or data used by those programs.

Programs are the most useful parts of the software programs because programs do the actual work.

• The program tells your computer:
• What to do-How to act
• How to use data it has
• How to react to your commands
• How to be a computer at all

Although important, a program is actually a simple thing. A Computer program is nothing but a list of commands to tell your hardware what to do. The program is written in a code called programming language.

Applications

The programs you buy from your dealer's shelves, in a person or through the Web, the ones you run to do actual work on your computer, are its applications. The word is actually short for the Application Software. These programs are with the purpose, programs you apply to get something done. 

Today's typical application comes on one or more CDs and is comprised of the megabytes, of digital stuff that you dutifully copy to your hard disk during the installation process. Hidden inside these megabytes is the actual function of the program, the part of the code that does what you buy the software for-be it to translate keystrokes into documents, calculate your bank balance brighten your photographs, or turn MP3 files into music. 

The part of the computer that actually work on the data you want to process is called an Algorithm, the mathematical formula of the task converted into program code. An algorithm is just a way for doing something written down as instructions so you can do it again.

That's why computers exist at all. They are simply good at repeatedly carrying out the simple mathematical operations of the algorithms without complaining. 

Basic Types of Computer Application Software

Class of Software	Functions
Web Browser	Entering and Interacting with Web sites and servers to buy, sell, research your favorite interests, and just while away evenings, afternoons and the rest of your life.
E-mail programs	Sending and receiving instant messages from friends, associates and solicitors in your neighborhood and around the world.
Word Processor	Getting your words write for print or electronic publications
Spreadsheets	The accountant’s ledger made automatic to calculate arrays of numbers.
Databases	A filling system with instant access and the ability to automatically sort itself
Drawing and painting programs	Creating and editing images such as blueprints and cartoon cells that can be filled and edited with electronic ease
Multimedia Software	Playing MP3 and WAV files for music, showing AVI or MOV video files, playing games or displaying images and sounds like a movie theatre under the control of an absolute dictator (you)

Suites

Several software publishers completely confound the distinctions by combining most of these application functions into a single package that include database, graphics, spreadsheets and word processing functionalities. These combinations are termed as Application Suites. Ideally they offer several advantages. Because many functions are shared between applications, large portions of code need not to be duplicated, as it would be the case with standalone applications. Because the programs work together, they better know and understand one another's resource requirement, which means you should encounter fewer conflicts and memory shortfalls. Because they all are package together, you stand to get a better price from the publisher.

Today's another name for the application suite: Microsoft Office. Although at one time at least three major suites completed for space on your desktop, the other offerings have, for the most part, faded away. Office has become popular because it offers a single-box solution that fills the need of most people, handling more tasks with more depth than they ordinarily need. The current version, Office XP, dominates the market because Microsoft sells it to the computer makers at a favorable price (and, some say, with more than a little coercion).

Operating Systems

The basic level of Software with which you will work on your Computer is the Operating System. It's what you see when you don't have an application or utility program running. But an operating system is much more than what you see on your screen.

As the name implies, the operating system tells your computer how to operate, how to carry on its most basic functions. Early operating system was designed simply to control how you read from and wrote to files on disks and were hence termed Disk Operating Systems (which is the original Computer Operating System was called DOS). 

Today's Operating System adds a wealth of functions for controlling every possible computer peripheral from keyboard (and mouse) to monitor screen.

The Operating System in today's computers has evolved from simply providing a means of controlling disk storage into a complex web of interacting programs that perform several functions.   

An interface is the point where two things connect together.

for example 

• The Human Interface is where you, the human being, interact with your computer. 
• The Programming Interface is where program links to the operating system.
• The User Interface is where you as the user, link to Operating System.

Interface can Combine and Blend together.

Of the Operating System's many interfaces only one, the user interface, is visible to you. The User Interface is the place where you interact with your Computer at its most basic level. Sometime this part of the Operating System called the user shell. In today's Operating Systems, the shell is simply another program, and you can substitute one shell for another.
In effect, the shell is a starting point to get your applications running, and it's the home base that you return to between applications. The shell is the program that paints the desktop on the screen and lets you choose the application you want to run.
Behind the shell, the Application Program Interface (or API) of the Operating System gives programmers a uniform set of calls, key words that instruct the Operating System to execute a built-in program routine that carries out some pre-defined function. 
Using the API offers programmers the benefit of having the complicated aspects of common program procedures already written and ready to go. Programmers don't have to waste their time on the minutiae of moving every bit on your monitor screen or other common operations. 

Operating System must watch your hardware to work on a given computer. The Software instructions must be able to operate your Computer

Windows 9X

The Windows 9X family includes Window 95, Window 98, and Windows Millennium Edition (Me). These Operating Systems are built on a core of the original 16-bit DOS and are meant to run only on Intel microprocessors and chips are completely compatible with Intel architecture.
Because DOS was originally written in a time before running several programs at once as common, Microsoft's programmers had to add on this ability and  provide the power to isolate each program from one another.


Windows NT

The 32-bit Windows family includes Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP, in all its versions. According to Microsoft, Windows Nt 3.1 was officially released to manufacturing on July 27, 1993. The same 32-bit core, although extensively refined, is still in use in current versions of Windows XP.
From the very beginning, Microsoft conceived Window NT as a multitasking Operating System, so its engineers built in feature that ensure the isolation of each application it runs.

Unix 

Unix is not a single Operating System but several incompatible families that share a common command structure. originally written at Bell Labs to run on a 16-bit Digital Equipment Company PDP-7 computer, Unix has been successfully adapted to nearly every microprocessor family and includes 8-, 16-, 32-, and 64-bit versions under various names. 

Linux 

Unlike other Operating Systems, Linux can be traced back to a single individual creator, Linux Torvalds, who wrote its kernel, the core of the Operating System that integrates its most basic functions, in 1991 while a student at University of Helsinki.
The most notable aspect of Linux is that it is "Open Source." That is, Torvalds has shared the source code- the lines of program code he actually wrote-of his Operating System with the world, whereas most software publishers keep their source code secret. This open-source model, as it is called, lets other programmers help refine and develop the Operating System.
Contrary to popular opinion, Linux is not a variety of Unix. It looks and works like Unix-the commands and structures are the same-but its kernel is entirely different. Programs written for Unix will not run under Linux. Programmers have adapted Linux to many hardware platforms, including those based on Intel Microprocessors. It is like Unix but it is free, so it has become a choice for many Web Servers and small business systems.   





Writer: Mr. Krishan Kumar Saini 

Today We have learnt about Software. Hope this lesson is helpful for you.