UNIT II COMPUTER SOFTWARE

INTRODUCTION:
A set of instructions that cause a computer to perform one or more tasks. The set of
instructions is often called a program or, if the set is particularly large and complex, a system.
Computers cannot do any useful work without instructions from software; thus a combination
of software and hardware (the computer) is necessary to do any computerized work.
Software is the entire set of programs, procedures, and routines associated with the operation
of a computer system, including the operating system. The term differentiates these features
from hardware, the physical components of a computer system. Two main types of software
are system software, which controls a computer's internal functioning, and application
software, which directs the computer to execute commands that solve practical problems. A
third category is network software, which coordinates communication between computers
linked in a network. Software is written by programmers in any number of programming
languages. This information, the source code, must then be translated by means of a compiler
into machine language, which the computer can understand and act on.

Computer Software Definition

Computer software is a general term used to describe a collection of computer programs,
procedures and documentation that perform some task on a computer system. The term
includes application software such as word processors which perform productive tasks for
users, system software such as operating systems, which interface with hardware to provide
the necessary services for application software, and middleware which controls and coordinates distributed systems.
Software is created with programming languages and related utilities, which may come in
several of the above forms: single programs like script interpreters, packages containing a
compiler, linker, and other tools; and large suites (often called Integrated Development
Environments) that include editors, debuggers, and other tools for multiple languages.

Computer Hardware Definition

Hardware is a comprehensive term for all of the physical parts of a computer, as
distinguished from the data it contains or operates on, and the software that provides
instructions for the hardware to accomplish tasks.
A typical computer (Personal Computer, PC) contains in a desktop or tower case the
following parts:

Motherboard which holds the CPU, main memory and other parts, and has slots for
expansion cards

power supply - a case that holds a transformer, voltage control and fan

storage controllers, of IDE, SCSI or other type, that control hard disk , floppy disk,
CD-ROM and other drives; the controllers sit directly on the motherboard (on-board)
or on expansion cards

graphics controller that produces the output for the monitor

the hard disk, floppy disk and other drives for mass storage

interface controllers (parallel, serial, USB, Firewire) to connect the computer to

external peripheral devices such as printers or scanners

Computer hardware / Software Interaction

Computer software is so called in contrast to computer hardware, which encompasses
the physical interconnections and devices required to store and execute (or run) the software.
In computers, software is loaded into RAM and executed in the central processing unit. At the
lowest level, software consists of a machine language specific to an individual processor.
Software is an ordered sequence of instructions for changing the state of the computer
hardware in a particular sequence. It is usually written in high-level programming languages
that are easier and more efficient for humans to use (closer to natural language) than machine
language. High-level languages are compiled or interpreted into machine language object
code. Software may also be written in an assembly language, essentially, a mnemonic
representation of a machine language using a natural language alphabet. Assembly language
must be assembled into object code via an assembler.

TYPES OF SOFTWARE
SYSTEM SOFTWARE
System software is responsible for controlling, integrating, and managing the individual
hardware components of a computer system. Generally, system software consists of an
operating system and some fundamental utilities such as disk formatters, file managers,
display managers, text editors, user authentication (login) and management tools, and
networking and device control software.

OPERATING SYSTEM SOFTWARE

The operating system software makes the computer perform its basic operational functions.
Disk operating system (DOS) is one of the earlier types of operating system software used to
power IBM-compatible computers. Commands are typed at a prompt to direct the computer
to carry out its functions.
Windows is the most common operating system today. It permits several programs to be
opened simultaneously and provides ease of movement between the open programs.Windows
NT is used for business networks. Once this operating system is downloaded and running,
other kinds of software are opened to perform the desired functions.The Macintosh Operating
System (Mac OS) is designed for use with Apple, Mac, and Power Mac computers

APPLICATION SOFTWARE
Application software allows performance of specific tasks, such as writing letters, computing
formulas, playing games, or carrying out desktop publishing tasks

Word-processing software: Writing tasks previously done on typewriters with

considerable effort can now be easily completed with word-processing software.
Writing tasks such as keying in reports, letters, and tables, as well as merging
documents, can be performed easily. Documents can be easily edited and formatted.
Revisions can be made by deleting (cutting), inserting, moving (cutting and pasting),
and copying data. Documents can be stored (saved) and opened again for revisions

and/or printing. Many styles and sizes of fonts are available to make the document
attractive.

Spreadsheet software: Spreadsheet software permits performance of an almost

endless variety of quantitative tasks such as budgeting, keeping track of inventory,
preparing financial reports, or manipulating numbers in any fashion, such as
averaging each of ten departmental monthly sales over a six-month period. A
spreadsheet contains cells, the intersection of rows and columns. Each cell contains a
value keyed in by the user. Cells also contain formulas with many capabilities, such as
adding, multiplying, dividing, subtracting, averaging, or even counting. An
outstanding feature is a spreadsheet's ability to recalculate automatically. If one were
preparing a budget, for example, and wanted to change a variable such as an increase
in salary or a change in amount of car payments, the formulas would automatically
recalculate the affected items and the totals.

Database software: A database contains a list of information items that are similar in
format and/or nature. An example is a phone book that lists a name, address, and
phone number for each entry. Once stored in a database, information can be retrieved
in several ways, using reports and queries. For example, all the names listed for a
given area code could be printed out and used for a commercial mailing to that area.

Desktop publishing software: This software permits the user to prepare documents
by using both word-processing devices and graphics. Desktop publishing software
uses word-processing software, with all its ease of entering and revising data, and
supplements it with sophisticated visual features that stem from graphics software.
For example, one can enhance a printed message with virtually any kind of
illustration, such as drawings, paintings, and photographs.

Presentation software: A speaker may use presentation software to organize a slide

show for an audience. Text, graphics, sound, and movies can easily be included in the
presentation. An added feature is that the slide show may be enhanced by inclusion of
handouts with two to six slides printed on a page. The page may be organized to
provide space for notes to be written in by the audience as the presentation ensues. An
example of this is Power Point. Preparation of the software is simplified by the use of
'wizards' that walk the user through the creation of the presentation.

COMMUNICATION SOFTWARE
Using telephone lines and working through the computer's modem, communications software
makes it possible to communicate to any location in the world using either fax or electronic
mail. A fax transmits whatever copy is on an original sheet of paper (text, graphics, or
handwriting) to another computer or fax machine. Electronic mail (e-mail) is a text message.
It remains in the receiver's computer until retrieved. The message can be stored in either the
sender's or the receiver's computer for later processing. Attachments or files can also be sent
via e-mail.

UTILITY SOFTWARE
Utility software is used to diagnose computer problems and repair them. A major type is a
virus (or "illness") checker. It checks for viruses the computer may have received from
downloading information received from the Internet, e-mail, or another disk. Although some
viruses may do little damage, others can cause serious damage to files and/or the computer
operating system. It is important for a computer owner to find a virus-check program, install
it, use it, and keep it continually updated. New viruses are found continually, and the only
way to be safe is to update. Some antivirus software allows easy updating by downloading
new files from the Internet.

SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT STEPS:

Software development life cycle model is also called as waterfall model which is followed by
majority of systems. This software development life cycle process has the following seven
stages in it namely
1. System Requirements Analysis
2. Feasibility study
3. Systems Analysis and Design
4. Code Generation
5. Testing
6. Maintenance
7. Implementation
Let us discuss each of these to have an overview about teach of the following steps in
software development life cycle.
1. System Requirements Analysis:
The first essential or vital thing required for any software development is system. Also the
system requirement may vary based on the software product that is going to get developed.
So a careful analysis has to be made about the system requirement needed for the
development of the product. After the analysis and design of the system requirement phase
the system required for the development would be complete and the concentration can be on
the software development process.
2. Feasibility study:
In this phase development team has to make communication with customers and make
analysis of their requirement and analyze the system. By making analysis this way it would
be possible to make a report of identified area of problem. By making a detailed analysis on
this area a detailed document or report is prepared in this phase which has details like project
plan or schedule of the project, the cost estimated for developing and executing the system,
target dates for each phase of delivery of system developed and so on.

3. Systems Analysis and Design:

This is an important phase in system development .Here analysis is made on the design of the
system that is going to be developed. In other words database design, the design of the
architecture chosen, functional specification design, low level design documents, high level
design documents and so on takes place. Care must be taken to prepare these design
documents because the next phases namely the development phase is based on these design
documents. If a well structured and analyzed design document is prepared it would reduce the
time taken in the coming steps namely development and testing phases of the software
development life cycle.
4. Code Generation:
This is the phase where actual development of the system takes place. That is based on the
design documents prepared in the earlier phase code is written in the programming
technology chosen. After the code is developed generation of code also takes place in this
phase. In other words the code is converted into executables in this phase after code
generation.
5. Testing:
A software or system which is not tested would be of poor quality. This is because this is the
phase where system developed would be tested and reports are prepared about bugs or errors
in system. To do this testing phase there are different levels and methods of testing like unit
testing, system test and so on. Based on the need the testing methods are chosen and reports
are prepared about bugs. After this process the system again goes to development phase for
correction of errors and again tested. This process continues until the system is found to be
error free. To ease the testing process debuggers or testing tools are also available.

6. Mainanence:
After the testing phase is completely through and the system is found to be error free it is
delivered to the customer. But no real system would be error free even then. This is because
when the system gets executed in real user system scenarios there would be possibilities of
lot of bugs and errors. This phase is called the maintenance phase and the errors in this are
recorded and changes has to be made in the system accordingly and again testing phase
comes into picture.
7. Implementation:
This is the final stage when the system gets into live.
The above software development process are all vital for a system to get developed with
quality and thus to achieve customer satisfaction which is the main objective of any software
development process.

Internet
INTRODUCTION:
The Internet is a computer network made up of thousands of networks worldwide. No one
knows exactly how many computers are connected to the Internet. It is certain, however, that
these number in the millions and are growing.
All computers on the Internet communicate with one another using the Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol suite, abbreviated to TCP/IP. Computers on the Internet use a
client/server architecture. This means that the remote server machine provides files and
services to the user's local client machine. Software can be installed on a client computer to
take advantage of the latest access technology.
An Internet user has access to a wide variety of services: electronic mail, file transfer, vast
information resources, interest group membership, interactive collaboration, multimedia
displays, real-time broadcasting, breaking news, shopping opportunities, and much more.

What is the Internet?

The Internet is a giant computer network that connects computers around the world together.
It is also the network of networks that connects more than three million computers (called
hosts). The Internet is the virtual space in which users send and receive email, login to remote
computers (telnet), browse databases of information (gopher, World Wide Web, WAIS), and
send and receive programs (ftp) contained on these computers
We will concentrate on the part of the Internet known as the World Wide Web. The Web is
made up of thousands of Web pages, each containing information about a particular topic. All
these Web pages are connected to one another by hyperlinks. A hyperlink could be a line of
text, an icon, or a picture that we can click on with our computer mouse to go from one place
on the Web to another.
Hyperlinks are easy to recognize. Words or lines of text that are hyperlinks will usually
appear in blue, although sometimes they are another color. Pictures are also frequently used
as hyperlinks. The easiest way to tell if a line of text or a picture is a hyperlink is to move
your computer mouse over it. When a small hand appears we know that we found a
hyperlink.

INTERNET EVOLUTION
The Internet began way back in 1969 - but it was called the ARPANET then. It started out as
a research project, and was developed by an agency called ARPA (Advanced Research
Projects Agency) within the US Defense Department, in conjunction with a number of
universities and military contractors. Its purpose was to explore the possibility of a
communication network that could survive a nuclear attack. This was achieved by having a
network where data could take multiple paths from its source to its destination. If part of the
network was destroyed, communications would still be possible through a different path.
Although it started out as a research project, the ARPANET quickly developed into a
communication tool. It was used for email, discussion groups and for exchanging files. In
1979 Usenet was born. The size of the network grew too, and it became increasingly popular
- more and more universities connected.

Other similar networks started popping up too (BITNET and CSNET were two). All these
different networks had trouble communicating with each other because they used different
communications methods. By the end of 1983 a standard communications protocol was
established (called TCP/IP). All the separate networks started using the protocol, and
connected to one another forming a network of networks. This became known as the Internet.
The size of the Internet kept growing at a faster and faster rate. In 1984 there were 1,000
machines connected to the Internet. In 1987 there were 10,000, and by 1989 there were
100,000.
Before the Web became popular, there were other ways to retrieve information from the
Internet. 'Archie' and 'WAIS' (Wide Area Information Systems) were ways to search for
specific files from all the files held on a single computer. Gopher was the next step - it
organized files in hierarchical menus, making navigation a matter of browsing through a
menu system. VERONICA (Very Easy Rodent Oriented Net-Wide Index to Computerized
Archives) was a database that held Gopher entries, making it possible to search them. By
1993 VERONICA, in combination with Gopher, was the most successful way of using the
Internet. These interfaces were all entirely text-based though. So while the Internet was a
powerful tool for experienced computer uses, the hostile looking interface made it
inaccessible for most home users.
The WWW
The idea for the World Wide Web came from CERN - (the European Laboratory for Particle
Physics). They needed a way to keep track of their information and documentation so that it
could be easily accessed and updated. The 'inventor' of the Web - Tim Berners-Lee - had
previously worked with hypertext and recognized its appropriateness for this project. The
system was implemented by 1992. Several different ways of viewing World Wide Web
documents were devised, but it wasn't until Marc Andresen of NCSA (National Centre for
Supercomputing Applications) developed a program called 'Mosaic' in 1993 that the WWW
was shaped into what we know it as today. Mosaic was the first graphical Web browser - it
allowed text, graphics, sounds and other multimedia to be viewed in one document. This
revolutionized the Web and brought its potential to the attention of the rest of the world

BASIC INTERNET TERMINOLOGY:

Domain abbreviations (last three characters in URL or address)

edu - Educational institutions
com - Commercial businesses
gov - U.S. government
mil - The U.S. military
org - Other organizations
net - Network/Internet Service Providers
Favorites - A menu option at the top of the screen that shows any websites that have been
previously saved for you to return to on a different day, much like a traditional bookmark is
used for books.
Go - A command in Explorer that sits on the top of the screen with other commands. In Go,
Explorer keeps track of most sites that a user has visited during a session of using Explorer.
This is not saved once you quit Explorer.
Home page - Default setting, or the page that opens up when you start your Browser. A
homepage can also be the entry point for people viewing information that is provided.
Internet - Network of millions of computers used to send information back and forth to one
another. There is no authority agency or company that decides what can and cannot be
published on the internet. This means that virtually anyone can publish, and means that there
are large numbers of sites that contain false and misleading information. It is important to
check who takes credit for the site you are viewing.

Links - Hypertext which, when clicked, connects you to another site or another page within
the same site. In most cases, these links are usually highlighted in blue and are always
underlined.
Page - What is on your screen at any given time. The page includes all the information
available to you by scrolling up or down; however, when you click on hypertext your
computer will 'jump' to a new page.
Search Engines - Software that allows you to search the Web by typing in a topic of interest.
Examples of search engines we use are Google, HotBot, and Northern Light. These search
engines find exact matches from what has been typed in the search screen to either
documents (files) or subjects of files on the WWW.
URL or Uniform Resource Locator - The address for a specific file on the web, as well as a
method for directing users to a specific file, at a specific site. To type in a different URL,
press command and L at the same time on a Macintosh computer, control and L on a PC, or
locate the address bar at the top of the screen, type in the URL, and then press return. The
URL for the Blaine School District Home page is: http://www.blaine.k12.wa.us.
Web Browser - To access the WWW, you need a Browser. A Web Browser is client software
that gets information from a server. It interprets the information, formats it, and displays it on
your computer screen. The most popular browser, and the one we use most often in Blaine, is
Internet Explorer.
WWW, World Wide Web or Web - Interactive collection of hypertext pages linked to one
another. They may include text, graphics and/or links to other spots in the Web. The Web is
interactive because a user can click on text or graphics to navigate (move) to more
information or other graphics, sounds and video that is of interest to them.

Components of the Internet

World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (abbreviated as the Web or WWW) is a system of Internet servers that
supports hypertext to access several Internet protocols on a single interface. Almost every
protocol type available on the Internet is accessible on the Web. This includes e-mail, FTP,
Telnet, and Usenet News. In addition to these, the World Wide Web has its own protocol:
Hypertext Transfer Protocol, or HTTP. These protocols will be explained below.
The World Wide Web provides a single interface for accessing all these protocols. This
creates a convenient and user-friendly environment. The operation of the Web relies primarily
on hypertext as its means of information retrieval. Hypertext is a document containing words
that connect to other documents. These words are called links and are selectable by the user.
A single hypertext document can contain links to many documents. In the context of the Web,
words or graphics may serve as links to other documents, images, video, and sound. Links
may or may not follow a logical path, as each connection is programmed by the creator of the
source document. Overall, the Web contains a complex virtual web of connections among a
vast number of documents, graphics, videos, and sounds.
HTML is an evolving language, with new tags being added as each upgrade of the language
is developed and released. For example, visual formatting features are now often separated
from the HTML document and placed into Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). This has several
advantages, including the fact that an external style sheet can centrally control the formatting
of multiple documents. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), led by Web founder Tim
Berners-Lee, coordinates the efforts of standardizing HTML. The W3C now calls the
language XHTML and considers it to be an application of the XML language standard.
The World Wide Web consists of files, called pages or home pages, containing links to
documents and resources throughout the Internet.

E-mail
Electronic mail, or e-mail, allows computer users locally and worldwide to exchange
messages. Each user of e-mail has a mailbox address to which messages are sent. Messages
sent through e-mail can arrive within a matter of seconds.
A powerful aspect of e-mail is the option to send electronic files to a person's e-mail address.
Non-ASCII files, known as binary files, may be attached to e-mail messages. These files are
referred to as MIME attachments. MIME stands for Multimedia Internet Mail Extension, and
was developed to help e-mail software handle a variety of file types. For example, a
document created in Microsoft Word can be attached to an e-mail message and retrieved by
the recipient with the appropriate e-mail program. Many e-mail programs offer the ability to
read files written in HTML, which is itself a MIME type.
Telnet
Telnet is a program that allows you to log into computers on the Internet and use online
databases, library catalogs, chat services, and more. Telnet is available on the World Wide
Web. Probably the most common Web-based resources available through Telnet have been
library catalogs, though most catalogs have since migrated to the Web. A link to a Telnet
resource may look like any other link, but it will launch a Telnet session to make the
connection. A Telnet program must be installed on your local computer and configured to
your Web browser in order to work. With the popularity of the Web, Telnet is less frequently
used as a means of access to information on the Internet.
FTP
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. This is both a program and the method used to transfer
files between computers. Anonymous FTP is an option that allows users to transfer files from
thousands of host computers on the Internet to their personal computer account. FTP sites
contain books, articles, software, games, images, sounds, multimedia, course work, data sets,
and more. If your computer is directly connected to the Internet via an Ethernet cable, you
can use one of several PC software programs, such as WS_FTP for Windows, to conduct a
file transfer.

E-mail Discussion Groups

One of the benefits of the Internet is the opportunity it offers to people worldwide to
communicate via e-mail. The Internet is home to a large community of individuals who carry
out active discussions organized around topic-oriented forums distributed by e-mail. These
are administered by various types of software programs. A great variety of topics are covered
by discussion groups. When you subscribe to a group, messages from other subscribers are
automatically sent to your electronic mailbox. You subscribe by sending an e-mail message to
the address of the group. You must have a e-mail account to participate in a listserv
discussion group.
Usenet News
Usenet News is a global electronic bulletin board system in which millions of computer users
exchange information on a vast range of topics. The major difference between Usenet News
and e-mail discussion groups is the fact that Usenet messages are stored on central
computers, and users must connect to these computers to read or download the messages
posted to these groups. This is distinct from e-mail distribution, in which messages arrive in
the electronic mailboxes of each list member. Usenet itself is a set of machines that
exchanges messages, or articles, from Usenet discussion forums, called newsgroups. Usenet
administrators control their own sites, and decide which (if any) newsgroups to sponsor and
which remote newsgroups to allow into the system.
Chat & Instant Messaging
Chat programs allow users on the Internet to communicate with each other by typing in real
time. They are sometimes included as a feature of a Web site, where users can log into the
"chat room" to exchange comments and information about the topics addressed on the site.
Chat may take other, more wide-ranging forms. For example, America Online is well known
for sponsoring a number of topical chat rooms. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a service through
which participants can communicate to each other on hundreds of channels. A variation of
chat is the phenomenon of instant messaging. With instant messaging, a user on the Web can
contact another user currently logged in and type a conversation. Most famous is America
Online's Instant Messenger. ICQ, MSN and Yahoo also offer chat programs..

GETTING CONNECTED TO INTERNET APPLICATIONS:

Internet address
There are two kinds of addresses that are widely used on the Internet. One is a person's e-mail
address, and the other is the address of a Web site, which is known as a URL..

E-Mail Address Format

The format for addressing a message to an Internet user is USER NAME @ DOMAIN
NAME. For example, the address of the author of this database is
soundar@Velammalit.com. There are no spaces between any of the words. Soundar is the
user name and Velammalit.COM is the domain name. The .COM stands for the commercial
top level domain category.

Internet domain name

An organization's unique name on the Internet. The chosen name combined with a top level
domain (TLD), such as .com or .org, also called a "domain extension," makes up the Internet
domain name. In order to access the Velammalit Web site, you would type
www.Velammalit.com in your browser's address field. The WWW is a mnemonic commonly
used for uniformity on the Web. Technically, Velammalit.com is a "second level domain,"
because the top level domain is .com. Velammalit.com is also known as a "root domain."

URL
(Uniform Resource Locator) The address that defines the route to a file on an Internet server
(Web server, FTP server, mail server, etc.). URLs are typed into a Web browser to access Web
pages and files, and URLs are embedded within the pages themselves as hypertext links. The
URL contains the protocol prefix, port number, domain name, subdirectory names and file
name. If a port number is not stated in the address, port 80 is used as the default for HTTP
traffic.

Downloading the Home Page

To access a home page on a Web site, only the protocol and domain name are required. For
example, HTTP://WWW.Velammalit.COM retrieves the home page of The HTTP is the Web
protocol, and WWW.Velammalit.COM is the domain name. Browsers default to the http://
prefix so only the www.velammalit.com needs to be typed in. In fact, we can usually omit the
WWW and dot, because most Web sites treat blank host names as "www" host names. If a
page is not the home page, its name has to be part of the address, and a slash is used to
separate it from the domain name. For example http://www.velammalit.com/aboutus.htm
points to the About Us page (aboutus.htm file).

The Full Path

If a page is stored in a subdirectory (folder within a folder), its name is also separated by a
slash, and subdirectories can be several levels deep. For example, the components of the
following hypothetical URL are described below:
http://www.velammalit.com/courses/departments/cse.html
http

protocol

//

separators

www.velammalit.com/

domain name

courses/

subdirectory name

departments/

subdirectory name

cse.html

document name (Web page)