Software

Computer software, or simply software, is a collection of data or computer instructions

that tell the computer how to work. This is in contrast to physical hardware, from which
the system is built and actually performs the work. In computer science and software
engineering, computer software is all information processed by computer systems,
programs and data. Computer software includes computer programs, libraries and related
non-executable data, such as online documentation or digital media. Computer hardware
and software require each other and neither can be realistically used on its own.

At the lowest programming level, executable code consists of machine language

instructions supported by an individual processor—typically a central processing unit
(CPU) or a graphics processing unit (GPU). A machine language consists of groups of
binary values signifying processor instructions that change the state of the computer from
its preceding state. For example, an instruction may change the value stored in a particular
storage location in the computer—an effect that is not directly observable to the user. An A diagram showing how the
instruction may also invoke one of many input or output operations, for example user interacts with
displaying some text on a computer screen; causing state changes which should be visible application software on a
typical desktop
to the user. The processor executes the instructions in the order they are provided, unless it
computer.The application
is instructed to "jump" to a different instruction, or is interrupted by the operating system. software layer interfaces
As of 2015, most personal computers, smartphone devices and servers have processors with the operating system,
with multiple execution units or multiple processors performing computation together, and which in turn communicates
computing has become a much more concurrent activity than in the past. with the hardware. The
arrows indicate information
The majority of software is written in high-level programming languages. They are easier flow.
and more efficient for programmers because they are closer to natural languages than
machine languages.[1] High-level languages are translated into machine language using a
compiler or an interpreter or a combination of the two. Software may also be written in a low-level assembly language, which has
strong correspondence to the computer's machine language instructions and is translated into machine language using an
assembler.

Contents
History
Types
Purpose, or domain of use
Nature or domain of execution
Programming tools
Topics
Architecture
Execution
Quality and reliability
License
Patents
 Design and implementation
Industry and organizations
See also
References
Sources
External links

History
An outline (algorithm) for what would have been the first piece of software was written by Ada Lovelace in the 19th century, for
the planned Analytical Engine.[2] She created proofs to show how the engine would calculate Bernoulli Numbers.[2] Because of
the proofs and the algorithm, she is considered the first computer programmer.[3][4]

The first theory about software—prior to creation of computers as we know them today—was proposed by Alan Turing in his
1935 essay On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem (decision problem).

This eventually led to the creation of the academic fields of computer science and software engineering; Both fields study
software and its creation. Computer science is the theoretical study of computer and software (Turing's essay is an example of
computer science), whereas software engineering is the application of engineering and development of software.

However, prior to 1946, software was not yet the programs stored in the memory of stored-program digital computers, as we now
understand it. The first electronic computing devices were instead rewired in order to "reprogram" them.

In 2000, Fred Shapiro, a librarian at the Yale Law School, published a letter revealing that John Wilder Tukey's 1958 paper "The
Teaching of Concrete Mathematics"[5][6] contained the earliest known usage of the term "software" found in a search of JSTOR's
electronic archives, predating the OED's citation by two years.[7] This led many to credit Tukey with coining the term,
particularly in obituaries published that same year,[8] although Tukey never claimed credit for any such coinage. In 1995, Paul
Niquette claimed he had originally coined the term in October 1953, although he could not find any documents supporting his
claim.[9] The earliest known publication of the term "software" in an engineering context was in August 1953 by Richard R.
Carhart, in a Rand Corporation Research Memorandum.[10]

Types
On virtually all computer platforms, software can be grouped into a few
broad categories.

Purpose, or domain of use

Based on the goal, computer software can be divided into:

Application software
which is software that uses the computer system to perform
special functions or provide entertainment functions beyond the
basic operation of the computer itself. There are many different
types of application software, because the range of tasks that Blender Game Engine, a free software.
can be performed with a modern computer is so large—see list
of software.
System software
which is software for managing computer hardware behaviour, as to provide basic functionalities that are
required by users, or for other software to run properly, if at all. System software is also designed for providing a
platform for running application software,[11] and it includes the following:
 Operating systems
which are essential collections of software that manage resources and provides common services for other
software that runs "on top" of them. Supervisory programs, boot loaders, shells and window systems are core
parts of operating systems. In practice, an operating system comes bundled with additional software
(including application software) so that a user can potentially do some work with a computer that only has
one operating system.
Device drivers
which operate or control a particular type of device that is attached to a computer. Each device needs at least
one corresponding device driver; because a computer typically has at minimum at least one input device and
at least one output device, a computer typically needs more than one device driver.
Utilities
which are computer programs designed to assist users in the maintenance and care of their computers.
Malicious software or malware
which is software that is developed to harm and disrupt computers. As such, malware is undesirable. Malware is
closely associated with computer-related crimes, though some malicious programs may have been designed as
practical jokes.

Nature or domain of execution

Desktop applications such as web browsers and Microsoft Office, as well as smartphone and tablet applications
(called "apps"). (There is a push in some parts of the software industry to merge desktop applications with mobile
apps, to some extent. Windows 8, and later Ubuntu Touch, tried to allow the same style of application user
interface to be used on desktops, laptops and mobiles.)
JavaScript scripts are pieces of software traditionally embedded in web pages that are run directly inside the web
browser when a web page is loaded without the need for a web browser plugin. Software written in other
programming languages can also be run within the web browser if the software is either translated into
JavaScript, or if a web browser plugin that supports that language is installed; the most common example of the
latter is ActionScript scripts, which are supported by the Adobe Flash plugin.
Server software, including:

Web applications, which usually run on the web server and output dynamically generated web pages to web
browsers, using e.g. PHP, Java, ASP.NET, or even JavaScript that runs on the server. In modern times these
commonly include some JavaScript to be run in the web browser as well, in which case they typically run
partly on the server, partly in the web browser.
Plugins and extensions are software that extends or modifies the functionality of another piece of software, and
require that software be used in order to function;
Embedded software resides as firmware within embedded systems, devices dedicated to a single use or a few
uses such as cars and televisions (although some embedded devices such as wireless chipsets can themselves
be part of an ordinary, non-embedded computer system such as a PC or smartphone).[12] In the embedded
system context there is sometimes no clear distinction between the system software and the application
software. However, some embedded systems run embedded operating systems, and these systems do retain the
distinction between system software and application software (although typically there will only be one, fixed,
application which is always run).
Microcode is a special, relatively obscure type of embedded software which tells the processor itself how to
execute machine code, so it is actually a lower level than machine code. It is typically proprietary to the processor
manufacturer, and any necessary correctional microcode software updates are supplied by them to users (which
is much cheaper than shipping replacement processor hardware). Thus an ordinary programmer would not
expect to ever have to deal with it.

Programming tools
Programming tools are also software in the form of programs or applications that software developers (also known as
programmers, coders, hackers or software engineers) use to create, debug, maintain (i.e. improve or fix), or otherwise support
software.

Software is written in one or more programming languages; there are many programming languages in existence, and each has at
least one implementation, each of which consists of its own set of programming tools. These tools may be relatively self-
contained programs such as compilers, debuggers, interpreters, linkers, and text editors, that can be combined together to
accomplish a task; or they may form an integrated development environment (IDE), which combines much or all of the
functionality of such self-contained tools. IDEs may do this by either invoking the relevant individual tools or by re-
implementing their functionality in a new way. An IDE can make it easier to do specific tasks, such as searching in files in a
particular project. Many programming language implementations provide the option of using both individual tools or an IDE.

Topics

Architecture
Users often see things differently from programmers. People who use modern general purpose computers (as opposed to
embedded systems, analog computers and supercomputers) usually see three layers of software performing a variety of tasks:
platform, application, and user software.

Platform software
The Platform includes the firmware, device drivers, an operating system, and typically a graphical user interface
which, in total, allow a user to interact with the computer and its peripherals (associated equipment). Platform
software often comes bundled with the computer. On a PC one will usually have the ability to change the platform
software.
Application software
Application software or Applications are what most people think of when they think of software. Typical examples
include office suites and video games. Application software is often purchased separately from computer
hardware. Sometimes applications are bundled with the computer, but that does not change the fact that they run
as independent applications. Applications are usually independent programs from the operating system, though
they are often tailored for specific platforms. Most users think of compilers, databases, and other "system
software" as applications.
User-written software
End-user development tailors systems to meet users' specific needs. User software include spreadsheet
templates and word processor templates. Even email filters are a kind of user software. Users create this
software themselves and often overlook how important it is. Depending on how competently the user-written
software has been integrated into default application packages, many users may not be aware of the distinction
between the original packages, and what has been added by co-workers.

Execution
Computer software has to be "loaded" into the computer's storage (such as the hard drive or memory). Once the software has
loaded, the computer is able to execute the software. This involves passing instructions from the application software, through the
system software, to the hardware which ultimately receives the instruction as machine code. Each instruction causes the computer
to carry out an operation—moving data, carrying out a computation, or altering the control flow of instructions.

Data movement is typically from one place in memory to another. Sometimes it involves moving data between memory and
registers which enable high-speed data access in the CPU. Moving data, especially large amounts of it, can be costly. So, this is
sometimes avoided by using "pointers" to data instead. Computations include simple operations such as incrementing the value of
a variable data element. More complex computations may involve many operations and data elements together.

Quality and reliability

Software quality is very important, especially for commercial and system software like Microsoft Office, Microsoft Windows and
Linux. If software is faulty (buggy), it can delete a person's work, crash the computer and do other unexpected things. Faults and
errors are called "bugs" which are often discovered during alpha and beta testing. Software is often also a victim to what is known
as software aging, the progressive performance degradation resulting from a combination of unseen bugs.
Many bugs are discovered and eliminated (debugged) through software testing. However, software testing rarely—if ever—
eliminates every bug; some programmers say that "every program has at least one more bug" (Lubarsky's Law).[13] In the
waterfall method of software development, separate testing teams are typically employed, but in newer approaches, collectively
termed agile software development, developers often do all their own testing, and demonstrate the software to users/clients
regularly to obtain feedback. Software can be tested through unit testing, regression testing and other methods, which are done
manually, or most commonly, automatically, since the amount of code to be tested can be quite large. For instance, NASA has
extremely rigorous software testing procedures for many operating systems and communication functions. Many NASA-based
operations interact and identify each other through command programs. This enables many people who work at NASA to check
and evaluate functional systems overall. Programs containing command software enable hardware engineering and system
operations to function much easier together.

License
The software's license gives the user the right to use the software in the licensed environment, and in the case of free software
licenses, also grants other rights such as the right to make copies.

Proprietary software can be divided into two types:

freeware, which includes the category of "free trial" software or "freemium" software (in the past, the term
shareware was often used for free trial/freemium software). As the name suggests, freeware can be used free,
although in the case of free trials or freemium software, this is sometimes only true for a limited period of time or
with limited functionality.
software available for a fee, often inaccurately termed "commercial software", which can only be legally used on
purchase of a license.
Open source software, on the other hand, comes with a free software license, granting the recipient the rights to modify and
redistribute the software.

Patents
Software patents, like other types of patents, are theoretically supposed to give an inventor an exclusive, time-limited license for a
detailed idea (e.g. an algorithm) on how to implement a piece of software, or a component of a piece of software. Ideas for useful
things that software could do, and user requirements, are not supposed to be patentable, and concrete implementations (i.e. the
actual software packages implementing the patent) are not supposed to be patentable either—the latter are already covered by
copyright, generally automatically. So software patents are supposed to cover the middle area, between requirements and concrete
implementation. In some countries, a requirement for the claimed invention to have an effect on the physical world may also be
part of the requirements for a software patent to be held valid—although since all useful software has effects on the physical
world, this requirement may be open to debate. Meanwhile, American copyright law was applied to various aspects of the writing
of the software code.[14]

Software patents are controversial in the software industry with many people holding different views about them. One of the
sources of controversy is that the aforementioned split between initial ideas and patent does not seem to be honored in practice by
patent lawyers—for example the patent for Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP), which purported to claim rights over any
programming tool implementing the idea of AOP, howsoever implemented. Another source of controversy is the effect on
innovation, with many distinguished experts and companies arguing that software is such a fast-moving field that software
patents merely create vast additional litigation costs and risks, and actually retard innovation. In the case of debates about
software patents outside the United States, the argument has been made that large American corporations and patent lawyers are
likely to be the primary beneficiaries of allowing or continue to allow software patents.

Design and implementation

Design and implementation of software varies depending on the complexity of the software. For instance, the design and creation
of Microsoft Word took much more time than designing and developing Microsoft Notepad because the latter has much more
basic functionality.

Software is usually designed and created (aka coded/written/programmed) in integrated development environments (IDE) like
Eclipse, IntelliJ and Microsoft Visual Studio that can simplify the process and compile the software (if applicable). As noted in a
different section, software is usually created on top of existing software and the application programming interface (API) that the
underlying software provides like GTK+, JavaBeans or Swing. Libraries (APIs) can be categorized by their purpose. For instance,
the Spring Framework is used for implementing enterprise applications, the Windows Forms library is used for designing
graphical user interface (GUI) applications like Microsoft Word, and Windows Communication Foundation is used for designing
web services. When a program is designed, it relies upon the API. For instance, a Microsoft Windows desktop application might
call API functions in the .NET Windows Forms library like Form1.Close() and Form1.Show()[15] to close or open the
application. Without these APIs, the programmer needs to write these functionalities entirely themselves. Companies like Oracle
and Microsoft provide their own APIs so that many applications are written using their software libraries that usually have
numerous APIs in them.

Data structures such as hash tables, arrays, and binary trees, and algorithms such as quicksort, can be useful for creating software.

Computer software has special economic characteristics that make its design, creation, and distribution different from most other
economic goods.[16][17]

A person who creates software is called a programmer, software engineer or software developer, terms that all have a similar
meaning. More informal terms for programmer also exist such as "coder" and "hacker" – although use of the latter word may
cause confusion, because it is more often used to mean someone who illegally breaks into computer systems.

Industry and organizations

A great variety of software companies and programmers in the world comprise a software industry. Software can be quite a
profitable industry: Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft was the richest person in the world in 2009, largely due to his
ownership of a significant number of shares in Microsoft, the company responsible for Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office
software products - both market leaders in their respective product categories.

Non-profit software organizations include the Free Software Foundation, GNU Project and the Mozilla Foundation. Software
standard organizations like the W3C, IETF develop recommended software standards such as XML, HTTP and HTML, so that
software can interoperate through these standards.

Other well-known large software companies include Google, IBM, TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Oracle, Novell,
SAP, Symantec, Adobe Systems, Sidetrade and Corel, while small companies often provide innovation.

See also
Software release life cycle
Independent software vendor
List of software
Software asset management
Open-source software

References
1. "Compiler construction" (http://www.cs.uu.nl/education/vak.php?vak=INFOMCCO). Archived (https://web.archive.
 org/web/20131102143144/http://www.cs.uu.nl/education/vak.php?vak=INFOMCCO) from the original on 2
November 2013.
2. Evans 2018, p. 21.
3. Fuegi, J.; Francis, J. (2003). "Lovelace & Babbage and the creation of the 1843 'notes' ". Annals of the History of
Computing. 25 (4): 16–26. doi:10.1109/MAHC.2003.1253887 (https://doi.org/10.1109%2FMAHC.2003.1253887).
4. "Ada Lovelace honoured by Google doodle" (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/dec/10/ada-lovelace-
honoured-google-doodle). The Guardian. 10 December 2012. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
5. Tukey, John Wilder (January 1958). "The Teaching of Concrete Mathematics". American Mathematical Monthly.
Taylor & Francis, Ltd. / Mathematical Association of America. 65 (1): 1–9, 2. doi:10.2307/2310294 (https://doi.org/
10.2307%2F2310294). ISSN 0002-9890 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0002-9890). JSTOR 2310294 (https://ww
w.jstor.org/stable/2310294). CODEN AMMYAE. "[…] Today the "software" comprising the carefully planned
interpretive routines, compilers, and other aspects of automative programming are at least as important to the
modern electronic calculator as its "hardware" of tubes, transistors, wires, tapes, and the like. […]"
6. Beebe, Nelson H. F. (22 August 2017). "Chapter I - Integer arithmetic". The Mathematical-Function Computation
Handbook - Programming Using the MathCW Portable Software Library (1 ed.). Salt Lake City, UT, USA:
Springer International Publishing AG. pp. 969, 1035. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-64110-2 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F
978-3-319-64110-2). ISBN 978-3-319-64109-6. LCCN 2017947446 (https://lccn.loc.gov/2017947446).
7. Shapiro, Fred (2000). "Origin of the Term Software: Evidence from the JSTOR Electronic Journal Archive" (http
s://web.archive.org/web/20030605004419/http://computer.org/annals/an2000/pdf/a2069.pdf) (PDF). IEEE Annals
of the History of Computing. 22 (2): 69–71. doi:10.1109/mahc.2000.887997 (https://doi.org/10.1109%2Fmahc.20
00.887997). Archived from the original (http://computer.org/annals/an2000/pdf/a2069.pdf) (PDF) on 5 June 2003.
Retrieved 25 June 2013.
8. Leonhardt, David (28 July 2000). "John Tukey, 85, Statistician; Coined the Word 'Software' " (https://www.nytime
s.com/2000/07/28/us/john-tukey-85-statistician-coined-the-word-software.html). The New York Times. Retrieved
24 September 2012.
9. Niquette, R. Paul (2006), Softword: Provenance for the Word 'Software (http://www.niquette.com/books/softword/t
ocsoft.html), ISBN 1-58922-233-4, archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20190808124650/http://www.niquette.c
om/books/softword/tocsoft.html) from the original on 8 August 2019, retrieved 18 August 2019
10. Carhart, Richard (1953). A survey of the current status of the electronic reliability problem (https://www.rand.org/c
ontent/dam/rand/pubs/research_memoranda/2013/RM1131.pdf#79) (PDF). Santa Monica, CA: Rand
Corporation. p. 69. "[…] It will be recalled from Sec. 1.6 that the term personnel was defined to include people
who come into direct contact with the hardware, from production to field use, i.e., people who assemble, inspect,
pack, ship, handle, install, operate, and maintain electronic equipment. In any of these phases personnel failures
may result in unoperational gear. As with the hardware factors, there is almost no quantitative data concerning
these software or human factors in reliability: How many faults are caused by personnel, why they occur, and
what can be done to remove the errors. […]"
11. "System Software" (https://web.archive.org/web/20010530092843/http://home.olemiss.edu/~misbook/sfsysfm.ht
m). The University of Mississippi. Archived from the original (http://home.olemiss.edu/~misbook/sfsysfm.htm) on
30 May 2001.
12. "Embedded Software—Technologies and Trends" (http://www.computer.org/csdl/mags/so/2009/03/mso20090300
14.html). IEEE Computer Society. May–June 2009. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20131028045823/htt
p://www.computer.org/csdl/mags/so/2009/03/mso2009030014.html) from the original on 28 October 2013.
Retrieved 6 November 2013.
13. "scripting intelligence book examples" (https://github.com/mark-watson/scripting-intelligence-book-examples/blo
b/master/part1/wikipedia_text/software.txt). 9 May 2018. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20151106154317/
https://github.com/mark-watson/scripting-intelligence-book-examples/blob/master/part1/wikipedia_text/software.tx
t) from the original on 6 November 2015.
14. Gerardo Con Díaz, "The Text in the Machine: American Copyright Law and the Many Natures of Software, 1974–
1978,” Technology and Culture 57 (October 2016), 753–79.
15. "MSDN Library" (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/default.aspx). Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/201
00611204810/http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/default.aspx) from the original on 11 June 2010. Retrieved
14 June 2010.
16. v. Engelhardt, Sebastian (2008). "The Economic Properties of Software" (https://ideas.repec.org/p/jrp/jrpwrp/2008
-045.html). Jena Economic Research Papers. 2 (2008–045). Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20160105145
954/https://ideas.repec.org/p/jrp/jrpwrp/2008-045.html) from the original on 5 January 2016.
17. Kaminsky, Dan (1999). "Why Open Source Is The Optimum Economic Paradigm for Software" (http://dankaminsk
y.com/1999/03/02/69/). Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20120522001231/http://dankaminsky.com/1999/03/
02/69/) from the original on 22 May 2012.

Sources
Evans, Claire L. (2018). Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=C8ouDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&dq=9780735211759&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=9780735211759&f=f
alse). New York: Portfolio/Penguin. ISBN 9780735211759.

External links
Software (https://curlie.org/Computers/Software) at Curlie

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Software&oldid=928973893"

This page was last edited on 2 December 2019, at 21:29 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using
this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.