Computer software/Talk

I'm not a guru, but how's this as a first *rough* draft at turning this into a narative form? --loh (2001-07-22)

Software is a generic term for organized collections of computer instructions, and consists of two broad categories: system software that makes the computer system itself run, and application software which uses the computer system to accomplish tasks.

System software is responsible for controlling, integrating, and managing the individual hardware components of a computer system so that other software and the users of the system see "the system" as a functional unit without having to be concerned with the low-level details such as transferring data from memory to disk, or rendering text onto a display. Generally, this means that 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.

Application software, on the other hand, is used to accomplish tasks other than just running the computer system. Application software may consist of a single program, such as an image viewer; a small collection of programs (often called a software package) that work closely together to accomplish a task, such as a spreadsheet or calendar; a larger collection (often called a software suite) of related but independent programs and packages that have a common user interface or shared data format, such as Microsoft Office, which consists of closely integrated word processor, spreadsheet, database, etc.; or a software system, such as a database management system, which is a collection of fundamental programs that may provide some service to a variety of other independent applications.

Programming languages and related utilities used in the software development process are special "systems" type of application, in that they are used to create and maintain both system and application software.