SOFTWARE
SOFTWARE
CHAPTER INDEX
1) Software, The Concept
2) Let's classify it...
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1) Software, The Concept.
2) Let's classify it...
2.1) Operative Systems
2.2) Programming Languages
2.3) General Purpose Software
2.4) Viruses
The word "Software"(as opposed to "Hardware") is a reference to a set
of computer instructions executed in a specific order. The Software itself
must exist in some data storage device. We could also define
software as the link between the user and the computer hardware, i.e. the
"real" computer, and, because of this function, it has to be written in
a language that the computer can actually "understand". This language is
known as "machine code". A person must know how to write in this code
before being able to create software. But, as machine code is a very cryptic
language to a human person, there are several programming languages that
do a "translator" job, from a programming language (that a human can learn to
write) to machine code.
2.1) Operative Systems
It's a special kind of software because it's designed to
be used for file-handling operations (create, edit and erase) and execute
all other kinds of software using itself as a "starting point". Some
of the most known operative systems to date are:
UNIX
Created in the late 60's, UNIX it's known for being one of the best in
it's category. It was the first operative system that introduced the concept
of multitasking. We should add the fact that UNIX was programmed
in C, one of the most respected programming languages to the date. UNIX
source code (available in shredded pieces, to protect intelectual rights) and
the executable form it's of free distribution and you can
download it
from several places on the Internet. The reason for being opensource it's simple:
if you were a programmer and you had found a bug in UNIX, you can fix it with
the source code that you download and make it better for everyone. Because
of this feature, UNIX has an inmense field of variants, ones better than
others.
Macintosh OS
Apple Computers released this operative system as the first one integrated in your computer's
mainboard. Like that, at the moment you turned on the power, the operative system
begun it's function inmediately. It's has been recognized as the first
"true" attempt to create an operative system with full user interactivity
features (such as mouse support).
Microsoft DOS
Best known as MS-DOS (Disk Operative
System), was a massive hit in the computer world, setting the Microsoft
company, created by Mr. William Henry Gates, as the most
known and successfull computer company in the history. DOS ruled the computer
world for about 10 years, when another one of Microsoft inventions (Windows)
would make it "go away" silently. As an operative system, DOS offers a great deal of
functionality by being extremely fast and capable of loading on both
old and new computers, due to it's small memory requeriments. It was so successfull that it's standard executable
file (16 bits), became everyone's standard. In this scene, miscellaneous
software became executable-standarized and for the first time, it entered to a
massive market, introducing megahit programs such as Lotus 1-2-3, a DOS version
of Microsoft Excel, and WordPerfect, a DOS version of Microsoft Word. But
not only this kind of software started being popular, computer games,
databases, compilers and all types of software were distributed because the
new 16 bits standard allowed them to, but that was until Windows appeared...
Microsoft Windows
When Windows appeared, it became a hit on sales,
making of DOS just a shadow, although it has never been "erased" from the
Windows system. We should straight something up. In it's beggining, Windows
wasn't a operative system. It's most common version, Windows 3.1, was a
"graphic complement" for DOS, i.e. it was executed from DOS and it was just
an alternate way of file-handling operations and some other features. This
version had a great success among the public and Microsoft took notice that
they could be hitting big doing it as an operative system. The result was
Windows 95, a 32-bit operative system (main difference from DOS, which had
only 16 bits) that has established as the most used operative system around
the world, but there are many people that keeps using DOS because it's
considered to be much more reliable (Windows 95 is known for having serious
bugs related to hardware and other sources that make it often crash without
further explanations). Recently, Windows 98 was released hoping to erradicate
those bugs but the public's answer has not been quite good, and
people has said that it's even worse than Windows 95. Nevertheless, no one
can deny the importance of Windows in the computer scene today. It's graphic
interactive style and it's unique handling has created the same effect that
DOS in it's time, and now the 32-bit executables are establishing as the
standards, rather than the old DOS 16-bit system architechture.
LINUX
Created by Linus Torvalds, LINUX it's the most serious threat for Microsoft
Windows. It's concept has everything to be successfull: it's a mixing of
the excellent UNIX features and Windows interactive style. It's also going
under the same development line that UNIX, opensource and free for
everyone. Anyhow, it's still a "baby" project and has been released in beta
versions, but it's expected to keep growing and growing.
2.2) Programming Languages
They deserve their own classification because all the other software is
created through it. As a human, you can speak several languages, english,
spanish, italian, etc. A computer "speaks" in machine code, a set of
well-defined instructions inserted in the computer internal devices
(mainboard,CPU). So, if you want to understand with the computer,
you must first translate your language into his, just like you would
do with a foreign person that you try to speak to. Now, it would be
completely out of the question to translate your language into machine code,
because a computer only understand mathematics relations and you handle
abstract ideas. So you have to use an intermediary: that is a programming
language. Anyway, this is just a briefing on programming languages. To be an expert
on the subject, take the Programming Tutorial on the "Programming" section
of PC POLIS!
2.3) General Purpose Software
The name says all. The software in this category includes Games, DataBases,
Word Processing, Internet Browsers, Communication Software, etc.
2.4) Viruses
Computer viruses are nothing else than small programs created by programmers,
usually for fun, with the purpose of harming your computer, erasing
your personal files and causing damages or crashings to the computer's
operative system. Computer viruses are just like the biological ones; they
"infect" files and they spread through your computer's hard drive. Then,
at some point you will extract a file to a floppy disk or to a CD and you'll
spread it to other computers without even knowing it. That's why it's important
to have a good antivirus software and updating it constantly. Each virus has
a name that often(not always) identifies his "work", for example, the "Ear"
virus asks you, when it's executed, questions about the anatomy of the human
ear (?). Here is how viruses are classified:
Program Viruses
These are viruses that hook up to EXE and COM files, precisely those
program executables files. An example for this kind of virus is the "CPW-1459".
Macros
These are very common viruses that hook themselves to the macros in programs
like Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel. The virus "Melissa" belongs to this
category.
Trojan horses
These are curious forms of viruses. Just like a trojan horse, they appear
"disguised" as another innocent program or file, until they "wake up" and
they reveal their true intentions, usuallly erasing files. A example
of trojan is the "AOL Trojan" virus.
Polymorphics
These viruses are called like this because they change their own code when
infecting a file, as a strategy for not being detected by some AntiVirus
software. Some examples are the "Moctezuma" and the "Freddy Krueger" virus.