TYPES OF UTILITIES

some important utilities are given below :

1. TEXT EDITOR : This utility program is used for creating, editing text files. Using this program any text manner (generally in English like language) can be typed and saved on a disk file. This file can be edited, corrected and also retrieved any time etc. It supports special commands for text editing i.e. you can insert, delete, find, replace characters, lines and paragraphs etc.

2. BACKUP UTILITY : This program facilitates the backing up of disk. Back up means duplicating the disk information so that in case of any damage or data-loss, this backed up data may be used.The backed up data may be restored when needed i.e. if your original files are damaged or lost.

UTILITIES

Utilities are those application programs that assist the computer by performing  housekeeping functions like backing up disk or scanning/cleaning viruses or arranging information etc.

3. COMPRESSION UTILITY : This program facilitates compression of files. Large files can be compressed so that they take less storage area. when needed, these compressed files can be exploded back to their original form. By compression, the files are stored in a special format that takes less space. However, these compressed files cannot be directly used, they need to be exploded back to their original form before they can be worked upon.

4. DISK DEFRAGMENTER : This utility program attempts to minimise the fragmentation on your disk. A file is fragmented when it becomes too large for your computer to store in a single loaction on a disk. When this happen, your computer splits the file up and store it in a pieces. You can use framented files, but it takes your computer longer to access them.

5. ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE : This utility program ensures virus-free work environment. A computer virus is a computer program that can inject other computer programs by modifying them in such a way as to include a copy of itself. A virus not only copies itself but also makes the computer system behave abnormally. For instance, unknown or unasked messages may get flashed or unwanted music gets played or unwanted graphical displays might occur

MAJOR CATEGORIES OF PACKAGES

Some major and most common categories of packages are :

(i) WORD PROCESSING SOFTWARE -  Word processing software is used to manipulate a text document, such as a resume or a report. You typically enter text by typing, and the software provides tools for copying, deleting and various types of formatting. Some of the functions of word processing software include:

•     Creating, editing, saving and printing documents.
•     Copying, pasting, moving and deleting text within a document.
•     Formatting text, such as font type, bolding, underlining or italicizing.
•     Creating and editing tables.
•     Inserting elements from other software, such as illustrations or photographs.
•     Correcting spelling and grammar. 

  

  Fig. 1 word processing software

Electronic cutting and pasting of words, lines, paragraphs and texts from other sources can be achieved in a flash. All these and much more are offered by the word processing packages. In other words, a qualified text processing package gives you everything and much more than what you could achieve before the advent of the computer.
You can use a word processor to create almost any kind of document be it a term paper, business letter, thesis work, legal document, newsletter and even a book.
many word processors are available in the market. Some popular ones are : wordstar, word, wordperfect, softword etc.

(ii) ELECTRONIC SPREADSHEETS - Another very popular package is electronic spreadsheet.An electronic spreadsheet is a program that accepts data values in tabular form and allows users to manipulate/calculate/analyze data in the desired manner. Spreadsheets not only allows manipulation of data but also can generate graphs and charts to show the relationships among numbers more widely.

fig. 2 electronic spreadsheet

Like most elements in the computer world, spreadsheet have come a long way since they were first developed. Today, many spreadsheets are three dimensional, allowing you to create not just a single worksheet but a stack of them with each sheet linked electronically to the others.

There are numerous spreadsheet packages available in the market.Some popular ones are : Lotus 1-2-3, excel, quattroPro etc.

(iii) DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS(DBMS) - A basic philosophy behind the efficient use of a desktop computer is to avoid, or at least reduce, the drudgery and monotony of carrying out a task which is either absolutely routine or highly repetitive in nature. Handling and analyses of a large volume of repetitive data fall in this category. Therefore, a desktop computer is ideally suited for such purposes, subject to the limitations imposed by its performance versatility and speed.
The skill in handling data has resulted in a resulted in a number of practical and highly efficient software packages,ranging from financial analyses to hospital, library and institution management. In particular, for shops, small business establishments, schools, collages, universities, research institutions, small manufacturing units, professionals and individuals, the capability for data analyses and data-based management has turned out to be a bonanza. Indeed, virtually any type of data based management service can be provided by a desktop computer.

Fig. 3. database management system

Database management software extends your ability to organize collections of data stored in your computer and provides tools for listing subsets of the data that meet specified criteria. For example, when you organize information with index cards, you generally arrange it in some logical order such as alphabetically by name or datawise or citywise or in the increasing order of amount etc. etc. Also records meeting a specific criteria may also be selected by setting filter conditions. For instance, you may view the records of only those employees who are in dapartment 'sales'. All this and much more is possible through database management packages.
Like other package, there are numerous DBMSs flocking the market. Some popular ones are foxpro, Access , Oracle etc.

(iv) DESKTOP PUBLISHING PACKAGES - What is still more is Desk Top Publishing (DTP) using a computer. As the name suggests, you get everything that you can achieve by the  typesetting method, indeed much more, in a substantially shorter timeframe. Apart from composing the text, its layout, line drawings, charts and graphs can be easily created and included in the main body of the text using standard programs. scanners are available for black and white or colour pictures to be included in the main body of the text using standard programs. The design and layout of complete book or journal can be achieved without much trouble using a suitable DTP package.

(v) GRAPHICS, MULTIMEDIA AND PRESENTATION APPLICATIONS - Perhaps the most spectacular tasks performed by computer involve graphics and animation packages. Apart from the capability of drawing various types of charts, graphs and line diagrams and text, headlines and banners in a number of attractive fonts, these packages are capable of producing like-life drawings with or without animation. Much of the computer graphics and animation that you see on your television can be produced by the computer. This skill has immensely improved the quality and efficacy of educational, commercial and other audio-visual presentations, lecture-demonstration programs and mass communication, in general. Ultimately, it is the limit of human ingenuity which may restrict the application of the seemingly limitless graphics and animation capabilities of your computer.
Presentation graphics is another specialized  type of graphics software. These programs are  used to create professional looking visual aids for an audience. The visual aids can be computer images, papers printouts or photographics transparencies

TYPES OF OPERATING SYSTEM

TYPES OF OPERATING SYSTEM

There are different types of operating systems available, which require different types of hardware to run upon.

(i) SINGLE PROGRAM OPERATING SYSTEM :- As the name suggests, this operating system is single user operating system, so only one user program can be supported and executed by it at any point of time.

(ii) MULTIPROGRAM OPERATING SYSTEM :- Unlike single program OS, this is multiuser OS. It supports multiprogramming i.e. more than one user can be supported by it, therefore, more than one user programs are loaded and active in the main store at the same time. These active programs are executed using some techniques one by one.

(iii) TIME SHARING OPERATING SYSTEM :- This OS uses the time sharing technique. each active user program is given a fair share of CPU time, if the time elaspes or an I/O operation is requested, CPU shifts over to the next job waiting and the previous program is put to wait or handed over to I/O manager. The active programs are scheduled for execution using certain job scheduling techniques.

(iv) REAL TIME OPERATING SYSTEM :- In real time OS, the job have fixed dealines and the jobs have to be completed within their dealines. The system performance is measuerd by its ability to complete within its dealine, this situation is called deadline overrun. An efficient real OS is that which gives minimum possible dealine overrun.

(v) MULTIPROCESSING OS :- The multiprocessing OS is capable od handling more than one processors as the jobs have to be executed on more than one processor. The multiprocessing OS should be capable of loadsharing in case of identical processors so that the system's efficiency improves. In case of unidentical processors, the multiprocessing OS should be able to control the super processor and in turn control the working of slave processors.

(vi) INTERACTIVE OS :- These Operating system are interactive in nature. These provide GUI interface to facilitate move and easy interaction to the user.

TYPES OF SOFTWARE

TYPES OF SOFTWARE

A computer system consists of hardware and software for its proper functioning.

HARDWARE – It represents the physical and tangible components of the computer i.e. the components that can be seen and touched. Input devices, output devices, CPU, floppy disk, hard disk etc. are examples of computer hardware.

SOFTWARE – it represents the set of programs that governs the operation of a computer system and make the hardware run

Following sections discuss system software and application software.

SYSTEM SOFTWARE -  A computer is mere a machine that knows nothing of itself. Rather it requies instructions for each and everything it performs. These instructions are provided to it
through software. The software that controls internal computer operations ( viz reading data from input devices, transmitting processed information to the output devices, checking system components, converting data/instructions to computer understandable form etc.) is called as system software.

The system software can further be classified into two categories :
Operating system
Language system

Let us discuss each one of these individually.
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1.1(a)    OPERATING SYSTEM – hardware is nothing but finely designed machinery. A machine is ultimately a machine only, which is always made to work. In case of computers, it is either us if we do that or ‘some other’ is nothing but our very own ‘operating system’.

Operating system is just like our secretory. As the boss gives orders to his secretory and the secretory does all the work for his boss. The secretory himself decides : how to do ? what to do ? etc. etc. same way, we pass our orders/requests to operating system and the ‘Operating System’does it for us. Operating system itself decides : how to do ? what to do? ; when to do ? The primary goal of an operating system is thus to make the computer hardware in an efficient manner.

An operating system is an important component of a computer system which controls all other components of the computer system.
Where hardware provides the basic computing resources, the application program routines define the ways in which these resources are used to solve the computing problems of the users and the operating system controls and coordinates the use of the hardware among the various application programs for the various users.

1.1(b)    LANGUAGE PROCESSOR – As programmers prefers to write their programs in one of the High Level Languages because it is much easier to code in such languages. However, the computer does not understand any language other than its own machine language (binary language) therefore, it becomes necessary to process a HLL programs so as to make it understandable to the computer. The system programs which performs this very job are language processors.
The language processor are given below :

(i) ASSEMBLER - This language processor converts the program written in assembly language into machine language.

(ii) INTERPRETER - This language  processor converts a HLL programs into machine language by converting and executing it line by line. If there is any error in any line, it reports it at the same time and program execution cannot resume until the error is rectified. Interpreter must always be present in the memoryevery time the preogram is executed as every time thge program is run, it is first intepreted and then executed.

(iii) COMPILER It also converts the HLL program into machine lanuage but the conversion ,manner is different. It converts the entire HLL program in one go, and reports all the errors of the program along with the line numbers. Afetr all the errors are removed, the program is recompiled and after that the compiler is not needed in the memory as the object program is available.

APPLICATION SOFTWARE - This type of software pertains to one specific application. For instance, a software that can perform railway reservation functions cannot prepare result for a school.

    There are the programs written by programmers to enable  computer to perform a specific function such as processing words, inventory control, handling calculations and figures, medical accounting, financial accounting, result preparation, railway reservation, billing etc.

1.1(a) PACKAGES - Only system software do not suffice for efficient use of computers because the system software exists mostly for the benefits of the computer. Other programs i.e. the application software are required to make the computer useful for people.
    As applications may be numerous , it is not feasible to design software for each one of them. Rather some general softwares are designed that may be used by individual users in the manner it suits their needs and requirements. Such general application softwares are known as packages.

However, some major and most common categories are :
1.Word Processing Software
2. Spreadsheets
3. Database Management Systems
4. Desktop Publishing Software
5. Graphics, multimedia, and presentation application.

1.1(b) UTILITIES : These are those helpful programs that ensure the smooth functioning of the computer. Utilities are meant to assist your computer. Some utilities help you backup data, some help remove outdated files or recover data that has been accidentally erased. Some make it easier to find and arrange the information you need. In other words, the utility programs performs housekeeping functions.
    It is an established truth that everthing comes with certain pros and cons. software also are not an exeception to it. Utilities bridge the gaps by helping to solve the problems and maximize your computer's potential.
Some important utilities are :
1. Text editor
2. Backup utility
3. Compression Utility
4. Disk defragmenter
5. Antivirus Software

1.1(c) - CUSTOMISED SOFTWARE - This type of software is tailor-made software according to a user's requirements. this type of software is developed to meet all the requiremnets specified by the user. For instance, a company wants to computerize its'accounts' department and gets a software developed according to its needs. Such a software is customized software - customized according to the users' needs. However such softwares cannot be directly installed at any other users' workplace as the requirements of the second user may differ from the first and the software mey not fit in the requirement of the new user.