Software is a set of instructions, data or programs used to operate a computer and perform specific tasks. Software is the opposite of hardware, which describes the physical aspects of a computer. So software is a generic term used to refer to applications, scripts and programs that run on a device.
We all have a more or less idea of what software is. Because all of us who use computers or smartphones are more or less familiar with the term software. The entire functionality of a computer and smartphone is based on software. I think even a small child is familiar with the word software!
Nowadays, so much good software has been developed in computers and mobiles, as a result of which people are now dependent on software in all areas. From daily tasks to complex and difficult tasks, the use of computer and mobile software has increased so much that people now do not want to do any work other than software. People are becoming dependent on software day by day as accurate information is available through a software.
A computer software can work faster and more accurately than a normal human. Where a human takes three hours to do a task, software can do it in just three minutes. Moreover, after a work is done, it can be edited again and again through computer software, which is not possible in any other way. The bottom line is that software has made people's lives easier because people are becoming dependent on software.
A computer or mobile is made up of different types of physical hardware that a human can see and touch. But different programming languages are used to create a software that cannot be seen, held or touched. Programs and commands carried out by computer hardware are called software.
You are now reading our article through a computer or mobile software. The software you are using is browser software. Without this browser software you will not be able to read our blog article. So software is definitely needed to run the computer.
If we compare the computer with the human body then it can be said like this-
Human body consists of different parts like hands, feet, nose, ears and eyes. Humans have feelings of fear, laughter, tears, pain and love at the same time. Similarly a computer is made of two things. One is hardware and the other is software. Hardware is computer's hands, feet, nose, ears and software is computer's feelings, laughter, tears, pain and love.
All digital devices such as mobiles, desktops, laptops, tablets and other small digital devices that are being operated today contain software programs. So, let's know what is software, what are the types of software, how does software work and how to create software?
What is software?
Software is a set of programs and instructions (functions) that together instruct a computer to perform a specific task. A software enables people to work on computers. A computer without software is nothing more than a box of hardware. And we cannot even command a computer without software. That is, without software, the computer is immobile.
A human can never see software through his own senses. Also it is not possible for humans to touch the software. Because a software has no physical parts. Software is a virtual object that can only be understood and experienced.
If you don't have software installed on your computer, you can consider that computer as a dead object. Because computer hardware can never run without the help of software. A computer needs the help of software to show its power.
You think in common sense and think that you have all kinds of software installed on your computer. But only the computer browser is not installed, then what will happen to your computer? In this condition, you cannot browse the internet on the computer. So do you understand how important each software is for computer management?
Apart from these, there are many other types of software including MS Office, Photoshop, Adobe Reader that you can use to do different types of work. Software gives life to your computer and makes it work. Without software, you can't do what you love from your computer.
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Definition of software
The definition of software can be said that a collection of many programs and instructions (functions) is called software when they are combined and instruct the computer to perform a specific task. Software is a program that cannot be seen or captured. Only its results can be seen and understood.
Software is a set of computer or digital device instructions, data or programs used to operate a computer and perform specific tasks. Software is the opposite of hardware, which describes the physical aspects of a computer. So software is a generic term used to refer to applications, scripts and programs that run on a device.
Types of software:
The two main categories of software are application software and system software. An application is software that fulfills a specific need or performs tasks. System software is designed to run on a computer's hardware and provides a platform for applications to run on top of it.
Other types of software include programming software, which provides the programming tools needed by software developers; middleware, which connects between system software and applications; and driver software, which manages computer devices and peripherals.
Initially software was written for specific computers and sold with the hardware it ran on. In the 1980s, software began to be sold on floppy disks and later on CDs and DVDs. Today, most software is purchased and downloaded directly from the Internet. Currently, software vendor websites or application service provider websites are commonly found.
Examples of software types:
Among the various categories of software, we have discussed the most common types here. The following software is included below:
1. Application software
It is the most common type of software, application software is a computer software package that performs a specific function or action for the user or in some cases for another application.
An application can be self-contained, or it can also be a group of programs that manage the application for the user. Examples of modern applications include office suites, graphics software, databases and database management programs, web browsers, word processors, software development tools, image editors, and communication platforms.
2. System software
These software programs are designed to run computer application programs and hardware. System software coordinates the operations and functions of hardware and software.
Also, system software controls the operation of computer hardware and provides an environment or platform for all other types of software to operate. OS is the best example of system software; It manages all other computer programs.
Other examples of system software include firmware, computer language translators, and system utilities, etc.
3. Driver software
Also known as device drivers, this type of software is often considered a type of system software. Generally, device drivers control the devices and peripherals connected to a computer, enabling them to perform specific tasks.
Every device connected to a computer requires at least one device driver to function. Examples include software that comes with any non-standard hardware, including special game controllers, as well as software that enables standard hardware, such as USB storage devices, keyboards, headphones, and printers.
4. Middleware software
The term middleware describes software that mediates or connects between application and system software or two different types of application software.
For example, middleware enables Microsoft Windows to talk to Excel and Word. It can also be used to send a remote job request from an application on a computer that has one type of OS, to an application on a computer with a different OS.
Also this software enables new applications to work with legacy.
5. Programming software
Computer programmers use programming software to write code ie applications. Programming software and programming tools are used by developers to develop, write, test and debug other software programs.
Examples of programming software include assemblers, compilers, debuggers, and interpreters.
How does the software work?
All software provides instructions and data to make computers work and to meet the needs of users i.e. software provides instructions to the computer to meet the needs of the computer users.
Remember, the two different types - application software and system software - work in distinctly different ways.
How does application software work?
Application software consists of a number of programs that perform specific functions for end users, such as writing reports and navigating websites. Applications can also perform tasks for other applications. Applications cannot run on their own on a computer; They require a computer's OS along with other supporting system software programs to function.
Desktop applications are installed on the user's computer and use computer memory to perform tasks. They take up space on the computer's hard drive and do not require an Internet connection to work. However, desktop applications must comply with the requirements of the hardware devices they operate.
On the other hand, web applications require only internet access to function; They do not depend on hardware and system software to run. As a result, users can manage web applications from devices that have web browsers. Since the components responsible for application functionality reside on the server, users can launch the web app from Windows, Mac, Linux or any other OS.
How does system software work?
System software sits at the interface between computer hardware and application software. Users do not directly interact with the system software.
Because, system software runs in the background, managing the basic functions of the computer. This software combines the hardware and software of a system so that users can run or use high-level application software to perform specific actions.
Generally system software is executed when a computer system boots and continues to run as long as the system is running.
Software design and implementation
The software development lifecycle is a framework that project managers use to describe the steps and tasks involved in designing software. The first step in the software design life cycle is to plan the effort and then analyze the needs of the people who will use the software and develop detailed requirements. After the initial requirements analysis, the goal of the design phase is to specify how to meet the user's needs.
The next step is implementation, where the development work is done, and then the software is tested. The maintenance phase may involve any work required to keep the system operational.
Software design should include a description of the structure of the software that will be implemented during implementation, the data model, interfaces between system components, and possible algorithms used by software engineers.
The software design process converts user requirements into a form that computer programmers can use to code and implement software. Software engineers develop the software design iteratively, adding details and making revisions as the design evolves.
Different types of software design include the following:
Architectural Design: This is the basic design, which uses architectural design tools to identify the overall structure of the system, its main components and their relationships with each other.
High-level design: This is the second level of design that focuses on how the system, including all its components, can be implemented in the form of modules supported by a software stack. A high-level design describes the data flow and the relationships between the various modules and functions of the system.
Detailed Design: This third level of design is focused on all the implementation details required for the particular architecture.
How is the quality of the software maintained?
Software quality is measured by whether the software meets both its functional and non-functional requirements.
Functional requirements identify what the software should do. Here, technical details may include data manipulation and processing, calculations, or any other specific function that specifies an application to be accomplished.
Functional requirements – also known as quality specifications – define how the system will function. Non-functional requirements include portability, disaster recovery, security, privacy and usability etc.
Software testing identifies and resolves technical issues in software source code and evaluates the product's overall usability, performance, security, and compatibility, so that it meets its requirements.
Software quality dimensions include the following characteristics:
Compatibility: The suitability of the software for use in different environments, such as compatibility with different OS, devices and browsers.
Efficiency: The software should have the ability to work well without wasting energy, resources, effort, time or money.
Functionality: The software's ability to perform specified functions.
Install ability: Having the ability to install software in a specific environment.
Localization: The ability of a software to work in different languages, time zones and other such features.
Maintainability: How easily the software can be changed or modified to add and improve features, fix bugs, etc.
Performance: How fast the software can work under a given load.
Portability: Whether the software has the ability to be easily transferred from one place to another.
Reliability: The ability of software to perform a required function under specified conditions for a specified period of time without error.
Scalability: The software's ability to increase or decrease performance in response to changes in processing demand is measurable.
Security: The ability of the software to protect against unauthorized access, privacy invasion, theft, data loss, malicious software, etc.
Testability: A measure of how easy the software is to test.
Usability: How easy the software is to use.
- Corrective: Users often identify and report bugs that developers must fix, including coding errors and other problems that prevent the software from meeting its requirements.
- Adaptability: Developers must regularly modify their software to keep up with changes in the hardware and software environment, such as updating based on a new version of the OS.
- Refinements: These are changes that improve system functionality, such as improving the user interface or adjusting software code to improve performance.
- Preventive maintenance: These changes are made to prevent software from failing and include tasks such as refactoring and code optimization.
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History of software
The following is a brief timeline of software history:
- June 21, 1948. Tom Kilburn, a computer scientist, wrote the world's first software for the Manchester Baby Computer at the University of Manchester in England.
- In the early 1950s. General Motors developed the first OS for the IBM 701 electronic data processing machine. It is called General Motors Operating System or GM OS.
- 1958. Statistician John Tukey coined the term software in an article about computer programming.
- In the late 1960s. Floppy disks were introduced and used for software distribution in the 1980s and 1990s.
- November 3, 1971. AT&T releases the first version of Unix OS.
- 1977. Apple releases the Apple II and discontinues consumer software.
- 1979. VisiCorp releases VisiCalc for the Apple II, the first spreadsheet software for the personal computer.
- 1981. Microsoft releases MS-DOS, the OS on which many early IBM computers ran. IBM began selling software, and commercial software became available to the average consumer.
- 1980s. Hard drives became standard on PCs and manufacturers began bundling software into computers.
- 1983. The open software movement begins with Richard Stallman's GNU (not GNU Unix) Linux project to create a Unix-like OS with source code that can be freely copied, modified, and distributed.
- 1984. Mac OS is released to run Apple's Macintosh line.
- Mid 1980s. Key software applications released include Autodesk AutoCAD, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel.
- 1985. Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released.
- 1989. CD-ROMs become standard and hold much more data than floppy disks Large software programs can be delivered quickly, easily, and relatively cheaply.
- 1991. The Linux kernel, the basis of the open source Linux OS, is released.
- 1997. DVDs are introduced and can hold more data than CDs, making it possible to put bundles of programs such as the Microsoft Office suite on one disc.
- 1999. Salesforce.com uses cloud computing to deliver pioneering software on the Internet.
- 2000. The term software as a service (SaaS) is coined
- 2007. iPhone launched and mobile applications began to take hold
- From 2010 to present. DVDs are becoming obsolete as users purchase and download software from the Internet and the cloud Vendors moved to subscription-based models and SaaS became common.
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