SOFTWARE

-Is the general term applied to the instructions

that direct the computer’s hardware to
perform work. These instructions are called
PROGRAMS.
- Some programs exist for the computer’s use,
to help it manage its own tasks and devices.
- Other programs exist for the use, & enable
the computer to perform task for you, such
as creating documents.
-Is distinguished from hardware by its
conceptual rather than the physical nature.
-Hardware consists of physical components,
whereas software consist of instructions
communicated electronically to the
hardware. Without software, hardware is
non-functional.
-Programs translate operations the user needs
into language and instructions that the
computer can understand.
2 PURPOSES OF
SOFTWARE
1. Computers don’t directly understand
human language, & software needed to
translate instructions created in human
language into machine language. At
the machine level, computers can
understand only binary numbers, not
english or any other human language.
2. Packaged or stored software is needed to
make the computer an economical work tool.
It is much more practical and economical for
the one highly skilled person or programming
team to develop programs that many other
people can buy and use to do common task.
BRIEF HISTORY OF COMPUTER
PROGRAMMING & SOFTWARE
AGUSTA ADA BYRON, Countess of
Lovelace (1816-1852) & CHARLES
BABBAGE (1791 – 1871)

 first described the concept of a stored

computer program
ANALYTICAL MACHINE

 Invented by Babbage but built by his son on

1910. the machine could perform
mathematical function that stimulated other
scientist to build such machine & how
instruction could be communicated to the
machine
CHARLES BABBAGE
BABBAGE ANALYTICAL
MACHINE
AGUSTA ADA BYRON
- THE FIRST PROGRAMMER
- She theorized the use of the
automatic repetitious
arithmetic steps that the
analytical engine would
follow to solve a problem,
namely, the “ LOOP
CONCEPT”
ROBERT VON NEWMANN
(1888-1976)
-Proposed that both data & instructions could
be stored in the computer & that the
instructions could be automatically carried
out.
JOSEPH JACQUARD
(1752-1834)
 Invented THE JACQUARD
LOOM, a device that used
blocks of wood with holes
drilled in such a way that
the threads to be woven
into cloth could form a
“program” or set of machine
instructions, to the loom.
THE JACQUARD LOOM
HERMAN HOLLERITH
(1860-1929)
HERMAN HOLLERITH
(1860-1929)
-Uses Jacquard’s idea but developed a
machine that could read punch cards and
tabulate the results.
-Hollerith’s idea was successful that he formed
a company called tabulating machine.
-After how many changes of name &
ownership, the company bacame
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE
(IBM)
TABULATING MACHINE
PUNCHED CARD
REAR ADMIRAL GRACE
MURRAY HOPPER
-Mother of Computing
-Offered her services to US Naval Reserve 7
was on active duty during World war 2.
-Assigned in Bureau of Ordinace Computation
at Harvard University, where she worked
with the first digital computer, the Mark 1 &
its successor Mark 2.
-She developed many of the concepts &
mathematical foundations of computer
programming science.
REAR ADMIRAL GRACE
MURRAY HOPPER
MARK 1
MARK 2
DEBUGGING
-Means checking the program to ensure that it
is free of error.
-it was coined by Dr. Hopper in 1945 when her
program crashed while working on the Mark
2.
-On examination of the computer, she
discovered that a moth caught in the
machine had caused the crash. Thus she “
DEBUGGED” the computer.
TYPES OF SOFTWARE
1. SYSTEM SOFTWARE:
- Boots up (start up & initializes) the
computer system; controls input, output &
storage; controls the operation of the
application software.
- Helps speed up computer’s processing,
expands the power of computer by creating
cache memory, reduces the amount of
confusion when multiple programs are
running together, “ cleans up the hard drive
& perform system management task.
A. BASIC INPUT & OUTPUT SYSTEM
- The first level of system control is handled by
the BIOS that is stored in the ROM chip on
motherboard.
- The first part of the computer to function
when the system is turned on; it searches for
the OS & loads it into the RAM.
- A combination of hardware & software. (it
consist of a set of instructions permanently
burned onto computer chips)
*FIRMWARE – Programs on chips.
B. OPERATING SYSTEM
- Actual software, loaded from the hard drive
into RAM as soon as the computer is turned
on.
- It can be upgraded or changed through
software unlike firmware.
- It manages interfaces to hardware
peripherals, schedules tasks, aloocates
storage in memory & on disks, provide
interface between the machine & the user.
*INTERFACE – the connection between CPU,
peripherals and the user.
a. DISK OPERATING SYSTEM (DOS)
- Present a blank screen to the user, & the
user submits typed commands.
- Design first for mainframe computers.
- Unfortunately, some programming skills had
to be acquired to use the DOS interface
effectively that is why market for PC was lost
because of people’s extreme resistance to
using the systems with such a poor user
interface.
[Link] USER INTERFACE (GUI)
- User interface is on-screen elements that
enable the user to interact with the software.
With graphical means the user will interact
with the programs through icons that
rrepresent a function.
- It lets you control the system by using mouse
to click graphical objects on the screen.
*1979 – Steve jobs abandoned DOS and move
to GUI system for a new product to be called
MACINTOSH. Inspired by his visit to XEROX
LABORATORY (where GUI was developed
but never succeeded in the popular
computer market).
*1984 – Macintosh was commercially sold.
“computer for everybody” and the PC market
exploded.
*BILL GATES
-Founder & CEO of Microsoft Corporation,
quickly recognized the need to provide a GUI
product & immediately began the
development of WINDOWS, the GUI for IBM
PC platform.
[Link] PROGRAM
-designed to enhance the function of the OS or
perhaps to add facilities that the basic OS
does not offer.
A. LANGUAGE TRANSLATION UTILITIES
- Translation programs are needed to convert
instructions written in English-like language
into binary.
- They were all machine dependent; that is a
compiler written for an IBM mainframe
computer could not work on a Hitachi
mainframe computer.
-Translation program today are often 90% or
more portable among different computer
platform.
B. THE WORLD WIDE WEB
- It provide protocol for document transfer
across the internet.
- Utulity program that allows the user to
access the web and the materials available
through the web.
*INTERNET
- Is a system of data and voice lines routed
through dedicated servers to create a
network of networks; that is, it consists of
linkages that allow users from one computer
network to access the documents and files
available on another network.
*FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL (FTP)
-Utility program that allow files to be ported
from one computer to another & from one
network to another.
TIM BERENERS-LEE
 CERN laboratory scientist in Switzerland
for particle physics, originated the idea
of having a protocol that would be
standard for all documents & sites in the
internet.
*1991 – CERN (the European
Organization for Nuclear Research)
released the WWW software.
*UNIX – Internet protocol prior to WWW.
TIM BERENERS-LEE
*HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol)
- Set of protocols required by WWW as
conceived by Berners-Lee to adhere to the a
standard set of text retrieval protocols.
*Hypertext
-refers to the facility that permits the standard
text-linking command to be incorporated into
documents.
-text-linking occurs when content in one document
refers to another document, & the user can click
on the linking text and have the protocol
automatically move the user from the first
document to the linked document.
*URL (Universal Resource Locator)
- Standard addressing system so that every
document would have only one address.

*HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)

- Allows the creator to format their text, add
colors, symbols, images, tables, etc so the
images created can be transmitted across
the internet.
MARC ANDREESEN
-THE FATHER OF INTERNET BROWSER
- Co-author of MOSAIC, a user-friendly
GUI over WWW.
- The founder of NETSCAPE
communication corporation.
MARC ANDREESEN
MOSAIC
NETSCAPE