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Operating systems and applications
To function at all, a computer needs an operating system program. Some operating systems require users to type in commands to tell the computer what they want to do.
Many computers use a graphical interface or point-and-click interface such as Windows. Icons are symbols representing the different peripherals, programs, and files. Functions are activated by selecting a particular icon with the mouse.
Some interfaces allow plug-and-play, the possibility of connecting new hardware to the computer without having to adjust or configure the system to take the new hardware into account: the interface program recognises the hardware automatically.
Programs for specific tasks are applications.
Applications include:
database software allowing information to be stored, added to, sorted, and analysed.
spreadsheets for calculations to be performed on numbers presented in rows and columns, for example in financial forecasting.
wordprocessing on a wordprocessor that permits texts to be entered, checked, changed, and printed. Desktop publishing or DTP takes this one step further by allowing the production of attractive documents of near-professional quality.
Vital applications that have great commercial success are killer applications or killer apps.
New software that is announced, but that appears late or not at all is, informally, vapourware.
The quality of the operating system determines how useful the computer is. The more effective it is, the more programs it can run at once and the more efficiently it uses the finite resources of the processor.
... Microsoft, the company that gave the world the ubiquitous Window graphical interface.
Windows popularised the mouse-driven point-and-click interface first seen on the Apple Macintosh.
Files and programs are arranged into icons so that user can see at a glance what files are available and what programs are running.
PC games required users to enter complicated DOS commands to configure audio, video and graphics cards. The newly 'plug and play' capability for Windows 95 stems from a new collection of Microsoft programs called DirectX that solves the memory problems of previous Windows versions.
In the 1980s the firm's applications for its own operating system sold poorly. Lotus, Wordperfect and Borland became the leading suppliers of (respectively) spreadsheets, wordprocessors and database software.
The spread of desktop publishing means many students now work on exactly the same Quark Express software as the professionals.
Microsoft has become a world leader in 'vapourware', new software announced long before it is ready for market, then delayed for months as the company eliminates bugs and changes specifications.
To function at all, a computer needs an operating system program. Some operating systems require users to type in commands to tell the computer what they want to do.
Many computers use a graphical interface or point-and-click interface such as Windows. Icons are symbols representing the different peripherals, programs, and files. Functions are activated by selecting a particular icon with the mouse.
Some interfaces allow plug-and-play, the possibility of connecting new hardware to the computer without having to adjust or configure the system to take the new hardware into account: the interface program recognises the hardware automatically.
Programs for specific tasks are applications.
Applications include:
database software allowing information to be stored, added to, sorted, and analysed.
spreadsheets for calculations to be performed on numbers presented in rows and columns, for example in financial forecasting.
wordprocessing on a wordprocessor that permits texts to be entered, checked, changed, and printed. Desktop publishing or DTP takes this one step further by allowing the production of attractive documents of near-professional quality.
Vital applications that have great commercial success are killer applications or killer apps.
New software that is announced, but that appears late or not at all is, informally, vapourware.
The quality of the operating system determines how useful the computer is. The more effective it is, the more programs it can run at once and the more efficiently it uses the finite resources of the processor.
... Microsoft, the company that gave the world the ubiquitous Window graphical interface.
Windows popularised the mouse-driven point-and-click interface first seen on the Apple Macintosh.
Files and programs are arranged into icons so that user can see at a glance what files are available and what programs are running.
PC games required users to enter complicated DOS commands to configure audio, video and graphics cards. The newly 'plug and play' capability for Windows 95 stems from a new collection of Microsoft programs called DirectX that solves the memory problems of previous Windows versions.
In the 1980s the firm's applications for its own operating system sold poorly. Lotus, Wordperfect and Borland became the leading suppliers of (respectively) spreadsheets, wordprocessors and database software.
The spread of desktop publishing means many students now work on exactly the same Quark Express software as the professionals.
Microsoft has become a world leader in 'vapourware', new software announced long before it is ready for market, then delayed for months as the company eliminates bugs and changes specifications.
