CSC 201 Chapter 3- Software, Fall 2001

Notre Dame University Software - Slide No. 1 - CHAPTER 3 – Software Notre Dame University Software - Slide No. 2 Types of Software Notre Dame University Software - Slide No. 3 Know the Meaning of the Terms; Operating Systems Software & Applications Software • Operating systems software – The operating system is a special type of program that loads automatically when you start your computer. – The operating system allows you to use the advanced features of a modern computer without having to learn all the details of how the hardware works • Applications software – An application program is the type of program that you use once the operating system has been loaded. – Examples include word-processing programs, spreadsheets and databases Notre Dame University Software - Slide No. 4 Operating System Software Notre Dame University Software - Slide No. 5 Understand the Main Functions of an Operating System. • To manage the computer’s resources, such as: – CPU – Memory – Printers – Disk Drives • To establish a user interface • To execute and provide services for applications software. Notre Dame University Software - Slide No. 6 Understand the Term Graphical User Interface (GUI) • A Graphical User Interface (GUI) is simply an additional part of the operating system that displays windows and drop down menus, and also enables you to drive your computer using a mouse. • Examples of operating system that use a GUI include Windows 3.1, Windows 95/98/2000, Windows NT and IBM's OS/2. Notre Dame University Software - Slide No. 7 Understand the Term Operating System- Command COM _The disk will not be able to fit all the data so we did an external DOS and an internal DOS to operate all the system . _Command Com: Is an external DOS command, that we have inside it all the internal DOS command and the interpreter program, and by turning ON the machine, Command Com will be bootable (transferable) on the top of memory and stays as long as the machine is ON. So the Command Com is the key to start up the machine, if we do not have it on the diskette we can not turn ON the machine. Notre Dame University Software - Slide No. 8 Understand the Term Operating System- Format _ Is another operating system command to make the diskette compatible with the machine. As physically, the format will divide the disk into tracks within the tracks number of sectors within the sectors number of bytes. At the end, it will create a FAT= “file allocation table”, which is an index for the operating system, to find the locations of files. Notre Dame University Software - Slide No. 9 Understand the Term Operating System- Window _ Window is an environment of the operating system it is a part of the operating system because it is using DOS when turning ON the machine. The window is a multi-testing operating system which mean that it can handle more than one program. _ Whenever using the window, we have to use the virtual memory, where the Hard Disk is acting as a virtual memory to the main memory which is the RAM. Notre Dame University Software - Slide No. 10 Applications Software Notre Dame University Software - Slide No. 11 List Some Common Software Applications Together With Their Uses. • Word processing applications – Microsoft Word – Lotus Word Pro – WordPerfect • Spreadsheets – Microsoft Excel – Lotus 123 • Database – Microsoft Access – Lotus Approach Notre Dame University Software - Slide No. 12 List Some Common Software Applications Together With Their Uses. • Payroll – Sage software • Presentation tools – Microsoft PowerPoint – Lotus Freelance • Desktop publishing – Abode Photoshop • Multimedia applications – Microsoft's Encarta CD-ROM based encyclopaedias • Web authoring applications – Microsoft FrontPage