SOFTWARE
As you are aware, computer cannot
do anything on its own. It is
the user who instructs computer;
what to do, how to do and when
to do. In order to perform any
task, you have to give a set of
instructions in a particular
sequence to the computer. These sets
of instructions are called Programs.
Software refers to a set of
programs that makes the hardware
perform a particular set of
tasks in particular order.
Software can be classified mainly
into following categories and
sub-categories are shown in
Classification
of Software
System Software Application
Software
Generalized
Packages
Customized
Packages
Utilities
Operating System
System
Software
When you switch on the computer
the programs stored in ROM
are executed which activates
different units of your computer and
makes it ready for you to work on
it. This set of programs can be
called system software.
System softwares are sets of
programs, responsible for running
the computer, controlling various
operations of computer
systems and management of computer
resources. Operating
System (OS) falls under this
category.
An operating system is a system
software that provides an
interface for a user to communicate
with the computer, manages
hardware devices (disk drives,
keyboard, monitor, etc), manages
and maintains disk file systems
and supports application
programs. Some popular Operating
systems are UNIX, Windows
and Linux.
Although operating system provides
all the features users need
to use and maintain their systems,
inevitably, they still do not
meet everyone’s expectations. This
has led to another type of
system software called "Utilities".
These are programs that bridge
the gap between the functionality
of an OS and the needs of users.
Utility programs are a broad
category of software such as
compress (zip)/uncompress (unzip)
files software, anti virus
software, split and join files
software, etc.
Application
Software
Application software is a set of
programs, which are written to
perform specific tasks, for
example: An application package for
managing library known as library
information system is used
to manage information of library
such as: keeping book details,
account holder details, book issue
details, book return details
etc. Another application package
for managing student details is
called student’s information
system, manages student’s roll no,
name, parents name, address,
class, section, processing of
examination results etc.
Application software can be broadly
classified into two types:
(a) Generalized packages
(b) Customized packages
Generalized
Packages
These are user friendly softwares
written to cater to user’s very
general needs such as preparing
documents, drawing pictures,
database to manage
data/information, preparing presentations,
play games etc.
It is a group of programs that
provide general purpose tools to
solve specific problems. Some of
the generalized packages are
listed below:
l Word Processing Software(for
preparing documents): Word
Perfect, MS-Word, OpenOffice.org
Writer
l Spreadsheets (Data Analysis):
Lotus Smart suites, MSExcel,
OpenOffice.org Calc, Apple Numbers
l Presentations : Presentation
Graphics, MS-PowerPoint,
OpenOffice.org Impress
Database
Management System:
MS-Access, OpenOffice.org Base,
MS-SQL Server, ORACLE
Graphics
Tools:
Paint shop pro, Adobe Photoshop
Customized
Packages
These are the applications that
are customized (or developed) to
meet the specific requirements of
an organization/institution. For
Example: Student information
details, Payroll packages,
inventory control etc.
These packages are developed using
high-level computer
language.
COMPUTER
LANGUAGES
Languages are a means of
communication. Normally people
interact with each other through a
language. On the same pattern,
communication with computers is
carried out through a
language. This language is
understood both by user and the
machine. Just as every language
like English, Hindi has its
grammatical rules; every computer
language is bound by rules
known as SYNTAX of that language.
The user is bound by that
syntax while communicating with
the computer system.
Computer languages are broadly
classified as:
1. Low Level Language:
The term low level means closeness
to the way in which machine
understand. The low level
languages are:
a. Machine Language:
This is the language (in the form
of 0’s and 1’s, called binary
numbers) understood directly by
the computer. It is machine
dependent. It is difficult to
learn and even more difficult to write
programs.
b. Assembly Language:
This is the language where the
machine codes comprising of 0’s
and 1’s are substituted by symbolic
codes (called mnemonics)
to improve their understanding. It
is the first step to improve
programming structure.
Assembly language programming is
simpler and less time
consuming than machine level
programming, it is easier to locate
and correct errors in assembly
language than in machine
language programs. It is also
machine dependent. Programmers
must have knowledge of the machine
on which the program will
run.
2. High Level Language
You know that low level language
requires extensive knowledge
of the hardware since it is
machine dependent. To overcome the
limitation, high level language
has been evolved which uses
normal English like, easy to
understand statements to solve any
problem. Higher level languages
are computer independent and
programming becomes quite easy and
simple.
Various high level languages are
given below:
BASIC (Beginners All Purpose
Symbolic Instruction Code):
It is widely used, easy to learn
general purpose language.
Mainly used in microcomputers in
earlier days.
COBOL (Common Business Oriented
language): A
standardized language used for
commercial applications.
FORTRAN (Formula Translation):
Developed for solving
mathematical and scientific
problems. One of the most
popular languages among scientific
community.
C: Structured Programming Language
used for all purpose
such as scientific application,
commercial application,
developing games etc.
C++: Popular object oriented
programming language, used
for general purpose.
COMPILER
AND ASSEMBLER
As you know that High Level
language is machine independent
and assembly language though it is
machine dependent yet
mnemonics that are being used to
represent instructions are not
directly understandable by
machine. Hence to make the machine
understand the instructions
provided by both the languages,
Compiler and Assembler are
required to convert these
instructions into machine
language.
The software (set of programs)
that reads a program written in high
level language and translates it
into an equivalent program in
machine language is called as Compiler.
The program written by the
programmer in high level language
is called source program and the
program generated by the
compiler after translation is
called as object program.
The software (set of programs)
that reads a program written in
assembly language and translates
it into an equivalent program
in machine language is called as Assembler.
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