Fundamentals of Programming
Fundamentals of Programming
• Attendance
• Courseworks
• Presentations
• Introduction
• At work, people use computers to analyze data, make presentations, conduct business transactions,
communicate with customers and coworkers, control machines in manufacturing facilities, and do many
other things.
• At home, people use computers for tasks such as paying bills, shopping online, communicating with
friends and family, and playing computer games. And don’t forget that cell phones, iPods®, BlackBerries®,
car navigation systems, and many other devices are computers too. The uses of computers are almost
limitless in our everyday lives.
• For example, Figure 1-1 below shows screens from two commonly
used programs, Microsoft Word and Adobe Photoshop.
• If you have ever shopped for a computer, you’ve probably seen sales
literature listing components such as microprocessors, memory, disk
drives, video displays, graphics cards, and so on.
With examples, explain the following hardware components as illustrated in the figure above.
• Main memory
• Input devices
• Output device
There are two general categories of software: system software and application
software. Most computer programs clearly fit into one of these two categories.
1. System software
2. Application software
11/13/2021 Patience Amanya MHIT, BCS 14
System Software
• The programs that control and manage the basic operations of a computer are generally
referred to as system software.
1. Operating Systems: The operating system controls the internal operations of the
computer’s hardware, manages all of the devices connected to the computer, allows data to
be saved to and retrieved from storage devices, and allows other programs to run on the
computer.
• Programs that make a computer useful for everyday tasks are known as application software.
These are the programs that people normally spend most of their time running on their
computers. These are programs that carry out/ meet users needs.
1. spreadsheet programs,
2. email programs,
3. web browsers,
4. game programs.