Languages and programs:The importance of software

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The importance of software

So far, we've looked at computer hardware. With this chapter we turn to software, i.e. the programs of instructions that tell the computer what to do. In fact, much of the rest of this book is about software. That's because software is the most important part of a computer system. The hard­ ware is useful only insofar as it enables the software to operate.

Computers are becoming more and more alike, especially in the world of business microcomputing. Like motor cars, they come in differently shaped boxes, and the contents of those boxes may differ slightly. But so far as you, the user, are concerned, they all behave in much the same way. They handle screens, disk-drives, and printers in what seems the same way, and most will run the same or similar software.

If a fantastic new software product comes out on the Apple Macintosh, within a couple of years it will also be available on IBM-PCs and compatibles, the Atari ST, and others. Likewise successful products running on the PC are soon available on the Apple Mac. If you want to use the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet package, or Microsoft's Excel, or the WordPerfect word processor, or Microsoft's Word, to name but a few, then you can buy any of the machines I've mentioned. For most computer tasks, it makes little differ­ ence which hardware you buy- it's the software that counts.

And whatever the hardware merits of the Macintosh, the Atari ST, or the Commodore Amiga, they do not run as much software as the PC. Which is one reason why some 40 million PCs have been sold world-wide, compared to a fraction of that number for other makes. So newer micros, such as the Acorn Archimedes, provide PC emulators - software or hardware add-ons that make the machine behave just like a PC, able to run the PC's software. Some micros, such as the Atari and the Amiga, enable you to emulate several other machines. These emulators slow down the running speed considerably, but computers like the Archimedes are so fast that the performance is still acceptable. In fact, we cannot be many years away from the day when a single box will be able to emulate almost anything, and therefore to run almost any software that you care to buy.

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