CHAPTER 4

LANGUAGE/SOFTWAR
E
1
3-1 Hardware
 Hardware is the machine itself
and its various individual
equipment.
 It includes all mechanical,
electronic and magnetic
devices such as monitor,
printer, electronic circuit,
floppy and hard disk.
2
 Software 3-2
• computer
Software refers to the set of
programs, which are used
in applications and operating
systems.
 It is the collection of programs,
which increase the capabilities of the
hardware.
 Software guides the computer at
every step where to start and stop
during a particular job.
 The process of software development
3

is called programming.
 SOFTWARE TYPES 3-3
1- Application Software :
 Application Software is a set of
programs for a specific
application.
 Application software is useful for
word processing, accounting,
producing statistical report,
Graphics, Excel and Data Base.
 programming languages COBOL,
FORTRAN, C++, VB, VC, Java
4
2- System Software:
•
When you switch on the computer
the programs written in ROM is
executed which activates different
units of your computer and makes it
ready for you to work.
• This set of programs can be called
system software.
• System software are general
programs designed for performing
tasks such as controlling all
operations required to move data
into and out of the computer
• System Software allows application
packages to be run on the computer.
5
 Computer manufactures build and
supply this system software with
the computer system.
 DOS, UNIX and WINDOWS are
some of the widely used operating
system software.
 Out of these UNIX is a multi-user
operating system whereas DOS and
WINDOWS are PC-based.
 We will discuss in details DOS and
WINDOWS in the next section.
6
 programming 3-4
languages
 programming languages specially
developed so that you could pass your
data and instructions to the computer
to do specific job
 There are two major types of
programming languages, Low Level
Languages and High Level Languages
 Low Level languages are further divided
in to Machine language and Assembly
language
 High Level Languages are, for scientific
application FORTRAN and C languages
are used. On the other hand COBOL is
used for business applications.
7
 3-5 Machine Language
 Machine Language is the only
language that is directly
understood by the computer. It
does not needs any translator
program
 The only advantage is that
program of machine language run
very fast
8
 Assembly 3-6
Language
 It is the first step to improve the
programming structure. You should
know that computer can handle numbers
and letter.
 The set of symbols and letters forms the
Assembly Language and a translator
program is required to translate the
Assembly Language to machine language
 This translator program is called
`Assembler

9
 Advantages:
 Assembly Language is easier to
understand and saves a lot of time and
effort.
 It is easier to correct errors and modify
program instructions.
 Assembly Language has the same
efficiency of execution as the machine
level language
 Disadvantages:
• Assembly language is machine
dependent. A program written for one
computer might not run in other
computers with different hardware 10

configuration.
HIGH LEVEL 3-7
LANGUAGES
 assembly and machine level
languages require deep knowledge
of computer hardware where as in
higher language you have to know
only the instructions in English
words and logic of the problem.
 Higher level languages are simple
languages that use English and
mathematical symbols like +, -, %, /
etc. for its program construction
11
 Any higher level language has to be
converted to machine language for the
computer to understand
 For example COBOL (Common Business
Oriented Language), FORTRAN (Formula
Translation) and BASIC (Beginners All-
purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) are
high level languages
 Advantages of High Level Languages
 Higher level languages have a major
advantage over machine and assembly
languages that higher level languages
are easy to learn and use (similar to the
languages used by us in our day to day
life.
12
Compiler 3-8
Compiler :It is a program
translator that translates the
instruction of a higher level
language to machine language.
 It is called compiler because it
compiles machine language
instructions for every program
instructions of higher level
language.
13
Thus compiler is a program translator
like assembler but more sophisticated.
It scans the entire program first and
then translates it into machine code.
The programs written by the
programmer in higher level language
is called source program. After this
program is converted to machine
languages by the compiler it is called
object program
A compiler can translate only those
source programs, which have been
written, in that language
14
Interpreter 3-8
 An interpreter is another type of
program translator used for
translating higher level language into
machine language.
 It takes one statement of higher level
languages, translate it into machine
language and immediately execute it.
 Translation and execution are carried
out for each statement.
 It differs from compiler, which
translate the entire source program
15
into machine code and
 The advantage of interpreter
compared to compiler is its fast
response to changes in source
program
 do not require large memory in
computer.
 The disadvantage of interpreter is that
it is time consuming method because
each time a statement in a program is
executed then it is first translated.
 Thus compiled machine language
program runs much faster than an
interpreted program.
16