LS 25A: Automation in Information Work

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LS 25A Automation in
Information Work

• Unit 1.2 Overview of Software

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Learning Objectives

• Define the role of the operating system
• Explain the functions of operating system
  software
• Define the role and functions of Application
  Software
• Know the functions of Integrated Library
  Management Software
• Develop the evaluation criteria for software

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WHAT WE WILL COVER

• Definitions
• System Software Details
• Application Software Details
• Application Software for Libraries
• Attributes to be considered for evaluation of
  software

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Definitions

• SOFTWARE
• General term for programs used to operate
  computers and associated devices or instructions
  needed for hardware to carry out input,
  processing, output and storage operations
• Software is classified as
• System software
• Application software
• Applets
• Middleware
• Firmware (microcode)

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Definitions

• System Software
• controls hardware that allows applications to do
  work
• Application software
• Software that automates a business process or
  does work an end user is interested in
  accomplishing

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System Software - OS

• WHY IS THE OS IMPORTANT?
• OS software defines the computing environment, by
  large
• Application programs are OS-specific
• Defines what apps you run
• OS software is hardware specific
• The user interface is always an issue
• Ease of use
• Specialized knowledge required to support

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System Software

• System Software
• operating system OS software
• Utility
• device driver
• Firmware
• OS is
• A program that manages ALL the other programs on
  a computer

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System Software - OS

• It is loaded by a boot program
• It manages utilization of all the resources on a
  computer
• Applications communicate with the OS via APIs
• Users interact with OS via CLI or GUI
• OS classified as
• General Purpose or Specialized
• Multithreaded

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System Software - OS

• OS classified as
• General Purpose or Specialized
• Depending on the work or utilization
• Single user vs. Multi-user
• WIN2K Win XP Unix S/390 Linux
• Multithreaded
• Execute different parts of single program
  concurrently

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System Software - OS

• Multiprocessing
• Two or more processors executing instructions
  simultaneously
• Multitasking
• Multiple processes sharing a single CPU
• Real Time
• Instant response to input
• Examples OS-9, QNX, BeOS, CMX, Solaris, Real Time
  Linux, RT-Mach
• Lots of them developed by universities

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System Software - OS

• Real Time OS Features
• Generally used for controls
• Quick Response to commands
• Imprecise computation deadline dependence
• QoS issues like stable communication rate,
  guarantee maximum delay non pre-emptive
  processing

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System Software - OS

• Basic OS Functions

• Prioritize access to resources
• Schedules access to ALU
• Allocates memory resources between applications
• Provides messaging services to and between
  applications
• Offloads management of jobs from calling apps

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System Software - OS

• Major OS Components
• A thread
• Primitive that executes code
• Process
• Environment for threads
• Kernel
• Controls the execution in threads
• Preemptive non-preemptive kernels
• Scheduler
• Scheduling policies FIFO, Round Robin

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System Software - DOS

• First widely-installed OS for a PC
• Started the PC revolution of the 80s
• Developed by Bill Gates MS for IBM
• PC-DOS MS-DOS
• DOS is non-graphical
• CLI or menu driven
• The command prompt C\gt___

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System Software - DOS

• C means you are working in a certain file space
  on HDD with this designation
• \ (backslash) means a level in the hierarchy of
  the file structure
• The Root directory sis special
• Memory management limited
• 8-bit OS

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System Software - DOS

• C\WINNT\MSAPPS\EXCEL\sample.xls
• DOS commands
• Dir
• Del
• Copy
• Print
• Command modifiers
• Only some commands take modifiers
• Wildcard (), more /w /a

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System Software - UNIX

• Developed by ATT at Bell Labs in 1969 for
  internal purposes
• Text processing was the first use
• Development diverged so multiple flavours now
  available
• See .pdf file to be distributed
• Heavily used on the Internet, in controls and
  manufacturing

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System Software - UNIX

• The shell
• Command interpreter influenced by flavours
• Command syntax case sensitivity
• rlogin ls cp rm cd
• Two popular examples are Solaris, HP-UX

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System Software - LINUX

• LINUX is Open Source OS
• What does this mean?
• Developed collaboratively by Linus Torvalds
  Finn academic - hundreds of other developers
• Linux is an operating system kernel
• It is like UNIX
• It has all of the features of a modern operating
  system
• First to come with TCP/IP networking standard

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System Software - User Interface Issues

• CLI not intuitive
• Required too much knowledge expertise to use
• Specialized support requirement was expensive
• It was not well understood by lay people so
  utility affected

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System Software - WIN

• Developed by MS to replace the DOS OS
  limitations
• Major developments
• Intro of a Graphical User Interface (GUI)
• Multitasking capabilities implemented with WIN 95
• More memory available for use
• 16-bit 32-bit
• 64-bit word now in XP

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System Software - WIN

• Several implementations to date
• WIN 3.x WIN 95 WIN 98, WIN ME WIN 2000 WIN XP
• www.microsoft.com/windows
• www.osdata.com
• www.linux.org

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2.1.11 The OS relative position
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Application Software

• Developed using programming language
• Cobol, Basic, C Java, HTML, XML Visual Basic
• Program contains instructions
• Must be compiled into machine language
• Some programs are not portable across machines
• Software can be custom-built or bought

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Application Software

• People who develop software are called
  programmers
• COTS freeware shareware public domain
• OPEN SOURCE
• Software distributed on different types of media
• CD-ROM diskette tapes (of various formats)
• Software is intellectual property

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Application Software

• Usually developed to solve a very specific
  problem
• An inventory management program word processing
  editor for digital videos accounting software
• It instructs the machines to do things and in
  what order via the OS
• Applications can be batched or JIT

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Application Software

• TYPES OF APPLICATIONS
• Specialized scientific applications
• Vertical market software
• Banking software, ILMS, LMS
• Graphics Software
• Windows Media Player
• Macromedia
• CAD/CAM
• Productivity software
• Word processing, spreadsheet, dbms, presentation
  software

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Application Software

• Library Needs
• Communications
• Internet access
• House-keeping software
• Integrated Library Management System (ILMS)
• Acquisitions cataloguing circulation serials
  management OPAC development use community
  information service (CIS)
• Examples ExLibris, Endeavour, VTLS

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Software Evaluation Criteria

• Authority
• Market credibility of software
• provider
• Reputation of Supplier
• Market reputation
• Reputation of the product
• literature reviews of product experience of
  colleagues market-place reputation of product

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Software Evaluation Criteria

• Hardware/Software Requirements
• Memory storage CPU requirements
• OS compatibility issues
• Software Functionality
• Identification of the essential features required
  in the software for the task s to be
  accomplished
• User-friendliness

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Software Evaluation Criteria

• Technical Support
• Documentation user and system must be available
  and easy to assimilate
• Installation support
• Training
• Software maintenance
• Active user groups

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SUMMARY