Introduction


Before moving on to the core of the assignment I firmly believe that there are certain things to explain first, for it would be – not useless, but a real waste if we went on without explaining these terms. So please bear with us for a while as it will certainly help you during your journey as you move further along this blog. So without wasting any more of your time let’s get started.

Software Engineering

As you can see this term consists of 2 distinct words : Software and Engineering. So what is Software and what’s Engineering?

Software

In very simple words, software is defined as computer applications and associated documentation. It refers to the intangible parts of the computer system and is the interface that links the end user to the hardware. For non IT people consider the following case. Say that you have a car and you are the driver. In this case the car is the hardware and you are the end user. So where’s the software? We can say that it is your ACTIONS i.e. what you do is what will drive the car. Similarly, keeping this in mind, software is what will drive the hardware and make it react to the end user.

Engineering : Is a discipline that completely englobes and deals with a particular object in practice.

Software Engineering : Can be defined as a discipline that deals with all aspects of software production - from its design to its implemetation stage.


Monday, October 1, 2007

System Software

Taking the same approach as above I will try to explain what a System is first so you can have a distinct idea. What’s the use of understanding system software when you can’t describe what a system is or what it does.

A system can be defined as a group of interrelated modules working together to achieve a specific task. Not pretty clear for someone who has not done IT ?? Think of your body as a system. And all its parts, i.e. all your organs are the modules of the system – your body. All of your internal organs each have a specific function but each of them work in collaboration to achieve a particular task which is keeping you alive. Applying this idea to the above statement you can now understand what a system is. Referring to the above you will see that software has already been defined so we move on to system software which is nothing but the heart of the system. In other words it is the main backbone software without which a system won’t be able to function.

Applying it to the IT domain we can extrapolate the following :

1. System software – a set of programs that organise, utilise and control hardware in a computer system.

2. System software is a generic term referring to any computer software which manages and controls the hardware so that application software can perform a task. It is an essential part of the computer system. System software contrasts with application software, which are programs that help the end-user to perform specific, productive tasks, such as word processing or image manipulation.

Examples of system software are :

1. An operating system
2. An OpenGL
3. Database library

References :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_software
http://www.depts.alverno.edu/cil/mod1/software/system.html
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/s/systems_software.html

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good for people to know.