Lecture Using information technology (11/e): Chapter 3 - Brian K. Williams, Stacey C. Sawyer

Chapter 3 - Software: Tools for productivity & creativity. The main contents of the dissertation consist: The operating system: what it does; other system software: device drivers & utility programs; common features of the user interface; common operating systems; application software: where to get it, how to use it; data files & program files; word processing software; spreadsheet programs; database software; office suites & integrated packages; specialty application software.

3.4 Common Operating Systems

UNIT 3B: Application Software: Getting Started

3.5 Application Software: Where to Get It, How to Use It

3.6 Data Files & Program Files

3.7 Word Processing Software 3.8 Spreadsheet Programs

3.9 Database Software 3.10 Office Suites & Integrated Packages 3.11 Specialty Application Software

• Application software is software that has been developed to

solve a particular problem for users—to perform useful work on specific tasks

or to provide entertainment.

• System software runs at the most basic level of your computer

and enables the application software to interact with the computer and helps the computer to manage its internal and external

resources, as well as manage the hardware.

There are three basic components of system software that you need to know about:

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operating system is the

principal component of system

software

in any computing system.

2 Device drivers: Device

drivers help the computer

control peripheral devices.

3 Utility programs: Utility

programs are generally used to

support, enhance, or expand

existing programs in a

computer system.

The operating system manages the entire computer system.

• The operating system (OS) consists of the low-level, master system of programs that manage the basic operations of the computer.

• Every general-purpose computer must have OS to run other programs.

• OS allows users to concentrate on applications rather than on complexities of the computer.

• Each application program is written to run on top of a particular OS.

• The process of loading an OS into the computer’s main memory

• Booting involves four steps:

1 Turn the computer on.

2 Diagnostic routines test main memory, CPU, and other hardware.

3 Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) programs are copied to main

memory.

• BIOS contains instructions for operating the hardware.

• The computer needs those instructions to operate the hardware and find a copy of the OS.

4 Boot program obtains the OS and loads it into computer’s main memory.

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• Cold boot—turn on computer’s “on” system

• Warm boot—restart a computer that is already on

• Boot disk—use a CD or flash drive containing all files to launch

OS

• Boot from the cloud

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• CPU is the central processing unit.

• Supervisor (kernel) is the software that manages CPU

• Remains in memory while the computer runs

• Directs other programs not in memory to perform tasks that support application programs

CPU Management (continued)

• Queues, Buffers, Spooling

• Queue: First-in, first-out (FIFO) sequence of data or programs that

waits in line for its turn to be processed

• Buffer: The place where the data or programs sit while they are

waiting

• To spool: The act of placing a print job into a buffer (Needed

because the CPU is faster than printers The CPU can work on other tasks while the print jobs wait.)

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• Data File: a named collection of data

• Program File: a program that exists in a

computer’s secondary storage

• Files are located in many places on secondary storage devices; OS locates files and facilitates access to them

• The file system arranges files in a hierarchical manner

• Top level is directories (folders)

• Subdirectories come below folders

• Find files using their pathname Example:

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• Task: An operation such as storing, printing, or calculating

• Multitasking: Handling more than one program concurrently

• Example: You do word processing while playing music on your computer.

• OS directs processor to alternate time on each program until processing is complete.

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• Users gain access using an ID and password.

• You set the password the first time you boot up a new computer.

• After that, when you boot up, you’ll be prepared to type in your username and password.

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• Device Drivers & Utility Programs

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• Keyboard & Mouse

• Special-purpose keys: used to enter, delete, edit data, and to execute

commands.

• Function keys (F1, F2, etc.): used to execute commands specific to the

software being used.

• Macros: keyboard shortcuts to activate series of commands.

• Mouse pointer: moved to particular place on screen or to point to little symbol

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Graphical User Interface (GUI)

• Allows you to use a mouse or keystrokes to select icons and commands from menus.

• Three main features of GUI are desktop, icons, and menus.

• Desktop: The system’s main interface screen.

• Icons: Small pictorial figures that represent programs, data files, or procedures.

• Rollover: A small text box that explains the icon when you roll your mouse over it.

• Menus: Lists of built-in commands and/or options from which to

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• Most operating systems use GUIs with the following:

• Title Bar: runs across the top of the display window and shows the name of the folder you are in.

• Menu Bar: shows the names of the pull-down menus available.

• Toolbar: Displays menus and icons representing frequently used options or commands.

• Taskbar: The bar across the bottom of the Windows screen that contains the Start button and icons that show open files/programs.

• windows: Rectangular portion of the display screen through which you can view a file of data or an application program

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Minimize, Maximize, Restore Down, and Close

1 Stand-alone operating systems

• Often called a desktop operating system, an operating system that

works on a single desktop or notebook (laptop) computer.

• Two principal stand-alone systems:

• Mac platforms —run Apple Macintosh

• PC platforms —run Microsoft Windows

• Some legacy systems still used—outdated but still functional

• DOS (Disk Operating System) (original Microsoft OS)—hard-to-use command-driven user interface

• Mac OS X from 2000 is based on Unix

• Mac OS 10.8 = Mountain Lion (2011)

• Mac OS 10.9 = Mavericks (2013)

• Windows 7: still most commonly used OS

• Windows 8: Has both desktop (“classic”) and tile views

• Tile view allows gesture manipulation of 29

2 Network operating systems

• Novell’s Open Enterprise Server (OES)

• Used for coordinating microcomputer-based local area networks (LANs) throughout a company or campus

• Network OS usually located on a main server

• Windows Server

• Designed to run on network servers in businesses of all sizes

• Multiple users share resources, such as data, programs, printers

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• Is particularly stable—used to run backbone of Internet

• Used by large organizations—for airplane design, currency trading

• Versions include Solaris, BSD

• Unix interface is command-line interface

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• Free (nonproprietary) version of Unix

• Continual improvements from thousands of volunteer programmers

• Linux is open-source software —anyone may make suggested improvements

• May legally be downloaded and used for free

• May legally be modified for free, as long as modifications aren’t copyrighted

• Uses command-line-interface or GUI

• Linux vendors give away software but sell services, products

•

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3 Embedded Operating Systems

• Embedded OS—resides on CPU chip

• Specialized system that is part of larger system or machine

• Used in mobile devices: Google Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, iOS, Embedded Linux

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UNIT 3B: Application Software—Getting Started

• People interact with the application software, which interacts with the system software, which interacts with the computer.

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developer to continue using it.

6 Rentalware

Online software that users lease for a fee and download whenever they

want it.

7 Web application (web app)

Software that runs on a remote Internet server rather than on a person’s own personal computer.

• Software license types:

• Site licenses allow software to be used on all computers at a specific

• Abandonware: Software that is no longer being sold or

supported by its publisher (but may still not be legally copied)

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• Tutorials & Documentation

• Tutorial: Instruction book or program that helps you learn to use the product by taking you through a series of steps

• Documentation: All information that describes a product to users, including a user guide or reference manual that provides a narrative and graphical description of the program

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• Types of Application Software

• May be classified as entertainment, personal, education/references, productivity, and specialized uses

• Productivity software: Purpose is to make users more

productive at particular tasks.

• Word processing, spreadsheets, database managers

• May be bundled in office suite

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software

Data files: Data files contain data, such as words, number,

pictures, and sounds—for example (extensions):

• Source program files : Source program files contain high-level computer instructions in the original form written by the

computer programmer.

• Executable files: To be made useful to the computer for processing, a source program file must be translated into an executable file, which contains the instructions that tell the computer how to perform a particular task You use an

executable file by running it, as when you select the spreadsheet program Microsoft Excel from your on-screen

.exe dll drv

.bas java

• Exporting: transforming data into a format that can be used in another program and then transmitting it

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Data compression is a method

of removing repetitive elements from a data file so that it requires less storage space and therefore less time to transmit Later the

data is decompressed—the repeated patterns are restored.

techniques to replace repetitive patterns of bits with a kind of coded summary During decompression, the coded summaries are replaced with the original patterns of bits the data that comes out is exactly the same as

what went in Lossless techniques are used when it’s important that nothing be lost—for instance, for computer data, database

records, spreadsheets, and word processing files.

discard some data during compression Lossy data compression involves a certain loss of

accuracy in exchange for a high degree of compression Examples of two lossy

compression file formats are jpeg and mpeg,

used for graphics files and sound files

Word Processing uses computers to create,

edit, format, print, and store text.

• Microsoft Word best known

• Others: Corel WordPerfect, Apple iWork Pages, Google Apps, Zoho Writer

• Word processing allows you to delete, insert, and replace text

• Additional features: creating, formatting, printing, saving

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• Cursor: movable symbol to show where to enter text

• Scrolling: moving quickly up, down, or sideways

• Word wrap: automatically continues text

to next line

• Head hierarchy: Outline View puts tags on headings

within a document to organize it according to head level

• Footnote numbering can be done

automatically

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• Editing : Making alterations in content

• Inserting: adding text to documents

• Deleting: removing text from documents

• Find & Replace

• Find: lets you go straight to any text in your document

• Replace: lets you automatically replace it with something else

• Cut, Copy, & Paste

• Select the text you want to move

• Copy (or cut) to clipboard, then paste in new location 51

• Spelling Checker: tests for incorrectly spelled words

• [ Note: Do not rely on spelling and grammar checkers to be

100% accurate!]

• Grammar Checker: highlights poor grammar, wordiness,

incomplete sentences, and awkward phrases

• Thesaurus: offers suggestions for alternative words with

the same meaning

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Formatting Documents with the Help of Templates

• Formatting: determining appearance of a document

• A template is a preformatted “form” that provides basic tools for structuring a final document—text, layout, page design, etc.

• Every word processing program comes with standard templates (for letters, memos, etc.)

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• The typeface and size of the text you use

• Also lets you specify underlined, italic, or bold and color

• Spacing & Columns

• Choose the line spacing (single- or double-spaced, or other)

• Choose single-column or multi-columned text for your document

• Margins & Justification

• Indicate width of left, right, top, and bottom margins

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Headers, footers, page numbers

• A header is text printed at the very top of the page

• A footer is text (like page number) at the page bottom Other Formatting

• You can specify borders, shading, tables, and footnotes

• You can also import graphics, such as clip art Default Settings

• These are the settings automatically used by the program unless

• Output: Printing, Faxing, or Emailing Documents

• Print individual pages, the whole document, or several copies

• You can fax or email finished documents

• Previewing: gives you a look at how document will look when printed, before you print

• Saving documents : store a document as an electronic file on, e.g., hard disk, CD or flash drive [SAVE your work often!!!!!!!!!!!]

• Word processing allows formatting of documents in HTML (for

the web)

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• Spreadsheets are used to create tables and financial schedules.

• Enter data and formulas into rows and columns on screen

• Microsoft Excel, Corel Quattro Pro, Lotus 1-2-3, Apple iWork Numbers

• Organized into columns and rows on a worksheet

• Labels are descriptive text

• Cells are where a row and a column meet

• Cell address is the position of the cell

• Range is a group of adjacent cells

• Values are numbers or dates entered into a cell

•

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Formulas, Functions, Recalculation, What-If Analysis

• Formulas are instructions for calculations

• Define mathematically how one cell relates to another

• Example: @SUM(A5:A15) sums the values of the cells A5, A6, A7, and so forth up through cell A15

• Functions are built-in formulas, such as SUM()

• Recalculation is the process of re-computing values

• What-if analysis allows users to see what happens to totals when one or more numbers change in cells

• Worksheet templates—custom-designed for particular work 63

Analytical Graphics: Worksheet and workbook data can be

displayed in graphic form.

• Spreadsheet programs allow you to automatically create graphs

• Graphical forms make numeric data easier to analyze

• Examples of types of analytical graphics:

• Data redundancy is minimized.

• Data is integrated and stored in a structured fashion.

• Data in databases has more integrity.

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• Each table contains rows (records) & columns (fields)

• Key is field used to sort data

• Most frequent key field is social security number

• Tables with the same key field are linked together

• Querying and displaying records

• Database software offers a quick way to locate records

• Saving, Formatting, Printing, Copying, Transmitting

• Can save results, format them in different ways, print as reports, copy to

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programs bundled together in a single package.

• Most popular are productivity suites (office suites), professional-level application programs frequently used in business—usually word processing, spreadsheet,

database management, and presentation programs

• Best-known productivity suite is Microsoft Office Others are Apple iWork, Corel WordPerfect Office, Lotus

SmartSuite, and StarOffice

• Cloud suites, or online office suites, include Microsoft Web

Apps, Google Docs, and Zoho.

microcomputers that combines the functionality

of word processing, spreadsheet, and database management.

helps you keep track of and manage information used on a daily basis, such as addresses,

telephone numbers, appointments, to-do lists, and miscellaneous notes.

• Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes