UNIT III

What is Software?
Software is a set of programs, which is designed to perform a well-defined
function. A program is a sequence of instructions written to solve a particular
problem.

Why we need Software?

Software helps to manage the computer hardware and also helps to solve our
problems. Any computing device has two parts Hardware and Software.

A computing device is made up of many several components of hardware(like

CPU, RAM, hard disk, motherboard, mouse, keyboard etc.) together working as a
single machine. All these computer hardware devices cannot work together on its
own. To working all these components together, we have to give instructions. So
we need software to give instructions to all these components.

Without software, a computer or any computing device is just a piece of garbage.

Any function of the computer is done by software.

Software gives a life to a computer machine so all the physical devices works
together like a one body

Types of S/W

Mainly there are Two types of Softwares are available.

They are,

1. System Software

2. Application Software
1.System Software

 The system software is a collection of programs designed to operate,

control, and extend the processing capabilities of the computer itself.
 Software is generally prepared by the computer manufacturers.
 These software products comprise of programs written in low-level languages,
which interact with the hardware at a very basic level.
 System software serves as the interface between the hardware and the
end users.
 Some examples of system software are: Operating System, Compilers,
Interpreter, Assemblers, etc.
 It controls the working of other software’s, hardware, hardware devices like
printers, memory, CPU etc.
 Thus, they make the operation of the computer more efficient.

Operating System:

 Operating System is a set of programs that are capable of managing

the resources and the operations of the computer.
 It is system software which acts as an interface between the user and
the system.
 It is an important component of the computer system which is the first
program loaded into the computer by a boot program.
 It is considered as the backbone of the computer.
 It performs basic tasks, such as:
 Identifying the input from the keyboard ,

 Sending output to the display screen ,

 Keeping track of files and directories on the disk memory ,

 Controlling peripheral devices such as disk drives and printers,

 Providing security for authorized user access.

2. Application Software
 Application software is a program or group of programs designed for
end users.

 It is used with computer system to perform some specified operations

(implementations) by the user.
 These software are designed for the requirements of business, education,
health, scientific applications etc.
 Nowadays special application software or packages for specialized areas like
drawing, engineering, manufacturing, banking, and publishing are available.
 The set of programs which together make an application package are called
application programs.
 The application software are:

a) Word processing

b) Spread sheets

c) Presentation

d) Graphics

e) DBMS

a) Word processing

 Word processing software is application software which is used to manipulate a

text document, such as printing the letter, editing the documents, creating text
based documents and resume or a report.
 We typically enter text by typing, and the software provides tools for copying,
deleting and various types of formatting.

Some of the functions of word processing software include:

 Creating, editing, saving and printing documents.

 Copying, pasting, moving and deleting text within a document.

 Formatting text, such as font type, bolding, underlining or italicizing.

 Creating and editing tables.

 Correcting spelling and grammar.

 The software which we are used for word processing is edit plus, notepad, word
pad, MS word

b) Spread sheets

 Spreadsheet software is a software application capable of organizing, storing

and analyzing data in tabular form.
 They can also have multiple interacting sheets with data represented in text,
numeric or in graphic form.
 With these capabilities, spreadsheet software has replaced many paper-based
systems, especially in the business world.
 Spreadsheet software is also known as a spreadsheet program or spreadsheet
application.

c) Presentation

 Presentation software is an application software that is specifically

designed to allow users to create a presentation of ideas by stringing
together text, images and audio/video.
 Presentation software can be divided into business presentation software
and general multimedia authoring software
 But most presentation software applications already provide tools that
allow users to create both professional-looking business presentations
and general multimedia presentations.
 Presentation software is also known as a presentation program.

d) Graphics

 Graphic designing software is application software which is used by graphic

designer to create images in different way to edit images to create video,
audio, images.
 Graphic software helps user to give visual effects in all form.
 Basically graphic software use by graphic designer to create marketing
material for company which include image, video, audio, logo, packaging
material.
  There is two type of graphic designing software one is pixel and another is
vector based graphic software.

 Diagram designing software

 Photoshop
 Web designing software
 Image viewer and management software

e) DBMS

 A database management system (DBMS) is a application software

package designed to define, manipulate, retrieve and manage data in a
database.
 A DBMS generally manipulates the data itself, the data format, field names,
record structure and file structure.
 Fourth-generation query languages, such as SQL, are used along with the
DBMS package to interact with a database.
 Some other DBMS examples include:
 MySQL

 SQL Server

 Oracle

 dBASE

 FoxPro

Programming Language:
A programming language is a computer language that is used
by programmers (developers) to communicate with computers. It is a set
of instructions written in any specific language ( C, C++, Java, Python) to
perform a specific task.

A programming language is mainly used to develop desktop applications,

websites, and mobile applications.

Types of programming language

Programming Languages are classified into Three types.

They are:

1. Machine Language / Low level Language

2. Assembly Language
3. High level Language

1. Machine Language

 Machine language is a low-level programming language.

 It is also called as machine code or Binary code.
 It is a collection of binary digits or bits that the computer reads and interprets.
 In this language the programs are written in binary code i.e. the instructions
are made only by a combination of binary digits 0 and 1.
 It is also time consuming, since all the instructions have to represent as a
series of 0’s and 1’s.
 It does not require a translator to convert the programs because
computers directly understand the machine language programs.

Advantages:

 Machine language makes fast and efficient use of the computer.

 It requires no translator to translate the code. It is directly understood by the
computer.

Disadvantages:

 All operation codes have to be remembered.

 All memory addresses have to be remembered.
 It is hard to find errors in a program written in the machine language.
 It is very difficult to program in machine language.

2.Assembly Language
 It is the first step to improve the programming structure.
 The set of symbols and letters forms the Assembly Language and a
translator program is required to translate the Assembly Language to
machine language.
 This translator program is called `Assembler'.

 It is considered to be a second-generation language.

 It was developed to overcome some of the many inconveniences of machine
language.
 This is another low-level language which uses alphanumeric symbols
instead of 0’s and l’s.
 These alphanumeric symbols are known as mnemonic codes. Example:
ADD for addition, SUB for subtraction, START, LABEL etc.
 Because of this feature, assembly language is also known as ‘Symbolic
Programming Language.'
 A program written using such symbols in the assembly language is called the
source program.

Advantages

 Assembly language is easier to understand as compared to machine

language.
 Assembly Language is easier to understand and saves a lot of time and effort
of the programmer.
 It is easier to correct errors and modify program instructions.

Disadvantages

 One of the major disadvantages is that assembly language is machine

dependent like machine language.
 A program written for one computer might not run in other computers with
different hardware configuration.
 Since it is machine dependent, the programmer also needs to understand the
hardware.

3) High Level Language

 High level languages make use of English like words and mathematical
symbols for instructions. These are Third generation languages.
 This makes programming easier, since they are relatively easy to learn.
 Less time is required to write programs in high level languages.
 They are machine independent.
 Higher level languages are also known as problem oriented languages.

 Because the instructions are suitable for solving a particular problem.

 It is not directly understood by the computer.
 It is required to be translated into machine language.
 This translator Programs is called Compiler and Interpreter
 Example: COBOL, FORTRAN, C, C++, Visual Basic, Java etc..

Advantages

 Higher level languages have a major advantage over machine and assembly
languages that higher level languages are easy to learn, maintain and
use.
 High-level languages are user-friendly.
 They are similar to English and use English vocabulary and well-known
symbols.
 A program written in a high-level language can be translated into many
machine languages and can run on any computer.

Disadvantages

 A high-level language has to be translated into the machine language by a

translator, which takes up time.
 The object code generated by a translator might be inefficient compared
to an equivalent assembly language program.

Translators

The programs which are used to translate programs written in Assembly /

high level language into machine language are known as translators.

The Types of translators are

 1) Assembler
2) Compiler
3) Interpreter

1) Assembler

In addition to high level languages and machine language, there is another

language called the assembly language. Assembly language is in between the
high level languages and machine language. It is closer to machine language
than high level languages.

Assembler is a language translator to translate Assembly Language

Programs into Machine Language Programs.

2) Compiler

 A Compiler is a language translator that converts high level programs into

machine understandable machine codes.
 In this process, the compiler converts the whole program to machine code
at a time.
 If there are any syntactic or semantic error, the compiler will indicate them.
 It checks the whole program and displays all errors. It is not possible to
execute the program without fixing those errors.
3) Interpreter

 An interpreter is also a language translator that converts high level programs

into machine codes.

 Unlike compilers, interpreters convert the source code to machine code line by
line.
 As it checks line by line, the scanning time is lower. But the overall execution
time is higher.
 Interpreter displays an error at a time.
 The programmer should fix that error to interpret the next line.
 Programming languages such as Python, Ruby, PHP, Perl are some examples
of interpreter-based languages.