For the Parents | A Tribute

Hello all,

Hope you would have gone through and enjoyed the previous article where we discussed “What kinda device is a computer?”.

What is a Software?

Article Id : 3

Topics : Computers, Software

So far we had seen what exactly is a computer and how do we interact to it? That is by means of passing our input data and receiving the output data in the form of binary. Remember, as an end user (a person sitting outside the computer without knowing its internals) we never get to see the binary form of the data at any point of time. But internally that is how the data being supplied by the user is converted and manipulated. It is all for the easy manipulation of data and it is left to the computer’s internal architecture.

We know for sure that no matter in what format, language we enter the data for processing, it is actually getting converted into binary and from there on all the other relevant processing until the final output, the data is getting manipulated in the form of binary only. Again, during the final output when it is displayed to the user, it is again converted into the language the user had fed in the data.

In this article we can see what is a software? You might have definitely come across the term ‘software’, ‘software industry’, ‘software engineering’, ‘software people’ etc., all associated with the term ‘software’.

What exactly is a software?

It is nothing but an application developed and gets executed with the help of a computer or any such similar device. What is so special about it, you might ask. Yes, an application is a functionality to process the input data and to produce the output by doing some manipulation.

For example, we may take a calculator. What it does? Any mathematical operation  you would like to perform, you feed in the data (in terms of number and the operation you want to perform say addition, multiplication , etc.,) and press a button (typically a button with the letter “=”). You get an output in the window for display, can also be called as a screen. This is an application which receives your input, does some processing and gives you the output.

The same thing if we develop with the help of a computer, it is called as a software. The benefits of developing using a computer is well known to you by this time and I am sure about it. If not, just recall the very first article, what is a computer. You would appreciate the benefits you get in terms of faster processing.

On a whole, a software is an application getting executed with the help of computer. The people who are working in the software are called as Software people or Software Engineers (based on their degree in education, engineering). The entire set of people and companies who derive certain norms, regulations is called as Software Industry. The branch of engineering which deals software is called as Software Engineering.

I guess this is fair enough to give an understanding of what is a software.

What you can develop as a software? Well, typically there is no limit. Whatever we feel like we can represent the real time operations, we can develop it as a software by writing an appropriate application that deals with the actual processing.

You would wonder how come I can write an application to instruct my grinder or pressure cooker? . Still it is possible, with the help of another word called Hardware.

We will see it in the next article.

Hello all,

Hope you would have gone through and enjoyed the previous article where we discussed “What is a computer?”.

What kinda device is a Computer?

Article Id : 2

Topics : Computers

Generally there are many definitions and interpretations around, I will try to share few things which would make you agree and understand.

So far we had discussed about what was the computer and we had stopped with the question of what kind of device is a computer? Well, it was to ask whether a computer is a Mechanical device or electrical device?

This post begins with the answer of the question.

A computer is neither a mechanical device nor an electrical device. Instead, it is a different kinda device. It is an electronic device.

What exactly is an electronic device?

To answer in one simple sentence, “the way it works”. To elaborate, the term electronic refers to the activity of dealing with electrons, which is one of the atom particles that carries negative energy.  Just to have a word about the particles, Electron, Proton and Neutron are the three sub particles of an atom. The proton carries a positive energy and the electron carries a negative energy and the neutron remains neutral. They are like different organs of our human body and each minds its own job.

Not to deviate from the main objective, an electronic device just works with two kind of states. One is active and other is inactive. What are those two states? They are actually mentioned with two numbers 1 and 0 respectively. To our wonder, any electronic device is capable of functioning with these 2 numbers but in a series. Surprising? Yes, but it is a truth. You can represent any information like your name, age, date of birth, degree etc., with these set of 2 numbers itself.

In general the term “bi” used to refer “two” and we do have one here. “Binary” means to represent these two states (1 and 0) and the numbers are called as digits. Combining these two terms we get “Binary digit” which is in short called “Bit“.

And the information whatever we represent in terms of 0′s and 1′s, are in general called as Binary information. For example, you can refer the term “Computer” in “1001110011011111101″. (It is not exactly, but just for imagining and understanding).

Binary – A number system

We all know what a number system is. A number system is a regulated set of numbers which the entire world agrees to operate and it has got a min and max numbers.

We know one number system called Decimal number system very well,  ranging from 0 to 10.

Likewise, the Binary is also a number system which just ranges from 0 to 1.

Few Questions You may have

You may have few questions here.

1. What benefits I get by representing the information/input data in Binary?
2. How am I supposed to calculate the binary representation for all my input data?
3. Should I have to do the  reverse when a computer produces my output? Say for example I want to do an mathematical operation of  2+3-5?

Let us see the answers for each question below.

1. What benefits I get by representing the information/input data in Binary?

As I already said, no matter what you are representing (or feeding in as your input data), you can just deal with only two numbers (or digits). That’s all. But it may not really making sense to you as an user.

Hold on until we get the answers for Qns 2 and 3 below.

2. How am I supposed to calculate the binary representation for all my input data?

As we already saw in Article 1, that is where a job of your computer comes in. Like how a refrigerator does its job when you keep the fruits and vegetables, the job of a computer comes in doing this transformation.

Are we supposed to bother about how a refrigerator keeps the temperature constant and retains the freshness of the vegetables kept inside? But we know that it works in such a way. At times we pacify ourselves saying that “it is the internal working mechanism of the device”.

Likewise, it is the job of the computer to do all these things. So we don’t need to bother about the conversion and it is all internal to computer’s processing logic and the main component of the computer called Processor does all this (Recollect it from Article 1).

3. Should I have to do the  reverse when a computer produces my output? Say for example I want to do an mathematical operation of  2+3=5?

Having seen the answer to the previous question, we do NOT really need to.

Our job is to feed in the data in a language we are comfortable at. Say in English. You can give it as “Computer”, “2″, “3″ etc.,  The number ’2′, ’3′ are decimal numbers which we know from our childhood. Like how the term ‘computer’ is getting translated to binary, the numbers represented in decimal are also converted. It is all because of making the job of a computer easy! As it is internal to it, let us not worry much why it has to convert?

As we had seen the computer is a device which facilitates our job in an easy manner to produce quick results, it does all the transformation and computes the final result.

As how it converts the data in english to binary (1′s and 0′s), it does the reverse while giving you back the output. Say the calculated sum of 2 + 3. Internally it would have done an operation to add these two numbers with the converted 1′s and 0′s for both 2 and 3 and it has the sum of 5 in binary only. Let’s say it is 0101. Then when it is displaying the output, it converts it back to the same format (english/decimal number, which you as an user fed in the data), as “5″.

That’s all.

So far, we had seen what kind of device is a computer and how it works with our data.

If you have any queries or clarifications, you are most welcome to ask.

See you in next article.

Dear Friends,

With your wishes and overwhelming response, I am really happy that the very main purpose of this initiative is reached and I am very sure that it would be accomplished by all means.

As a general disclaimer, I would like to share the things which I know and having been experiencing. As usual, I generally talk with the very basics.  That does NOT mean that the readers and their ignorance is taken for granted!. However, there may be few people whom I consider as my target audience!

Let’s go with the very first article.

What is a Computer?

Article Id : 1

Topics : Computers

Generally there are many definitions and interpretations around, I will try to share few things which would make you agree and understand.

A computer is just a device/machine which is prepared to speed up things.

It is no different from any of the machines we use on our day to day lives like Wet grinder, Refrigerator etc.,

Typically it needs the following things to function.

• 1. Being a machine it needs the energy in terms of electrical power to run.
• 2. It needs something to process to save its main purpose.
  • In terms of your wet grinder you put the materials like rice, water etc., so that you would get the flour as the resultant thing at the end. You need certain things like fruits, vegetables, sweets etc to preserve in Refrigerator. Without these things you don’t really feel the purpose of the device called Refrigerator.
• 3. It produces or generates some thing at the end.
  • Your wet grinder gives you the flour, refrigerator gives the things you kept inside as they were but with the chilled state (with which you feel the real functioning of the device as a proof).

Lets see few terms related to the IT or Computer Science industry.

Computer internally is having many components like your refrigerator or Wet grinder. One such important component is called Processor, as the term indicates it is the main and most important piece of the computer. It processes things. Other way, it gets the things done! It is like a brain of the human being. It knows how to send commands to different components built inside the computer. All what you can get to see outside is a box. But all the other components are wired inside.

Data — This is other important term as this is what going to certify the existence of the device. Like your ingredients, this is what going to be processed.  However, it is a common term and it has got two classifications

• Input Data or Input — The thing you give it to the device for analysing/processing for doing its work.
• Output Data or Output — The processed thing you get out of the work done by the device. Its like a preserved fruit/vegetable from your Fridge.

So, whats special about computers? If it is just like yet another device?

All those things we had looked at are electrical devices. You might have seen few mechanical devices as well.

However, is Computer also of one such kind ? ? ?

Stay tuned.. Lets discuss those aspects in the next article..

Cheers….