Computer Skills Preparatory Year Presented by: L.Obead Alhadreti

Last week - Lecture 2  The main parts of the Personal Computer  Computer Hardware  Memory Measurement  Factors that Impact on a Computer's Performance

Lecture 3 - Outline  The main parts of the Personal Computer  Computer Software  Types of Computer Software  Software/System Development Process

Main parts of the PC Computers Have Two Main Parts:  Hardware: The term hardware refers to the physical components of your computer which you can physically touch or see such as your monitor, case, disk drives, microprocessor and other physical parts.  Software The software is the instructions that makes the computer work. Software is held either on your computers hard disk, CD-ROM, DVD or on a floppy disk and is loaded from the disk into the computers RAM, as and when required.

Computer Software  Software Computer software can be divided into: operating systems, utility programs, application programs, and programming languages.

Types of Computer Software  Operating Systems  The operating system (OS) is the most important type of computer software, which makes a computer work.  Every general-purpose computer must have an operating system. Without an operating system, a user cannot run an application program on their computer.  It loads automatically when you start your computer.  It is divided in terms of user interface into two types: graphical operating systems: displays images and icons (e.g. windows),..., and non-graphical operating systems (e.g. DOS): displays the text only.

Types of Computer Software  The main functions of the operating systems:  It is mainly responsible for creating the link between the hardware components and the other software components (applications programs), and the user.  It is responsible for executing the programs and ending them as needed by the users by keeping the sequences of the functions from the beginning to the end(receiving the input, processing the data, storing and displaying the results).  It is responsible, immediately after booting the PC, for making sure that all devices connected with the computer (e.g. input and output devices) are working properly.  Alert to the presence of any error in any component of computer hardware.

Types of Computer Software  Popular Operating Systems :  DOS  non-graphical operating system  unable to deal with several programs at the same time.  Windows  graphical operating system. Users mostly use mouse.  able to deal with several programs at the same time.

Types of Computer Software  Macintosh  graphical operating system.  Developed by Apple, Steve Jobs  Linux  Open source software: use, change, and improve the software.  able to deal with several users at the same time.  Mostly used for internet servers.

Types of Computer Software  Utility programs  Computer programs that perform a particular function related to computer system management and maintenance.  The main functions of the utility programs:  scan disk and repair mistakes.  divide and fragment disks.  control files and folders (copy, compress, delete, backup).  measure the performance of the processor, memory and speed up performance.  protect data.  Examples: Anti-virus software, and Disk backup software. operating systems+ utility programs= System software

Types of Computer Software  Application Programs  an application program is the type of program that you use once the operating system has been loaded.  interact directly with the user  most common types of computer software.  used for a specific purpose or application.  Examples: word processors, electronic spreadsheets, and databases management systems.

Types of Computer Software  Word Processors Word processing is a tool that helps user in creating, editing, and printing documents. Word processors will normally have the following capabilities built into them:  spell checking.  standard layouts for normal documents.  have some characters appear in bold print, italics, or underlined.  center lines, make text line up on the left side of the paper, or the right side of the paper.  save the document so it can be used again.  print the document. Examples: Microsoft Word and WordPerfect.

Types of Computer Software  Spreadsheets  The spreadsheet packages are designed to use numbers and formulas to do  calculations with ease. Examples of spreadsheets include:  Budgets  Grade Calculations  Address Lists  The most commonly used spreadsheet programs are Microsoft Excel and Lotus 123.

Types of Computer Software  Graphic Presentations  The presentation programs can make giving presentations easier. Other uses include:  Slide Shows  Repeating Computer Presentations on a computer monitor  Using Sound and animation in slide shows  The most recognized graphic presentation programs are Microsoft PowerPoint and Harvard Graphics.

Types of Computer Software  Database Management System (DBMS)  A DBMS is a software tool that allows multiple users to store, access, and process data into useful information.  Database programs are designed for these types of applications:  Student lists  Grade reports  Instructor schedules  Example: Microsoft Access, and Oracle.

Types of Computer Software  Programming Languages  Programming language is a software used to make other software such as (applications).  It uses phrases or codes to make a software.  The one who make software/programs is called programmer.  The most popular programming languages ​​ include Visual Basic language, ​​ C, C+ +, C#, and Java…

Software/System Development Process  The Software Development Process include:  Feasibility Study  Design  Programming  Implementation

Lecture 3 - Conclusion  The main parts of the Personal Computer  Computer software  Types of Computer Software  Software/System Development

Lecture 4- Next Week !  Networks