What does application software consists of?

Answer 1

Word processor may also refer to an obsolete type of stand-alone office machine, popular in the 1970s and 80s, combining the keyboard text-entry and printing functions of an electric typewriter with a dedicated computer for the editing of text. Although features and design varied between manufacturers and models, with new features added as technology advanced, word processors for several years usually featured a monochrome display and the ability to save documents on memory cards or diskettes. Later models introduced innovations such as spell-checking programs, increased formatting options, and dot-matrix printing. As the more versatile combination of a personal computer and separate printer became commonplace, the word processor disappeared.

Answer 2

Software applications work through the operating system to gain access to the hardware.

A software application carries out tasks that the user is interested in doing such as writing a letter, creating graphs, sending an email or downloading a webpage.

Application software can be classified under three main categories:

• General purpose software
• Specialist software
• Tailor made or bespoke software

1. General Purpose SoftwareA general purpose application, sometimes known as 'off-the-shelf' is the sort of software that you use at home and school. Examples include word processors, spreadsheets, databases, desktop publishing packages, graphics packages etc.

This type of software tries to be a 'jack-of-all-trades'. It provides many features that the majority of users will want e.g. formatting text, creating charts, organizing tables. But it does try to be' all things to all people' and so there will be a vast number of features that you may never use e.g. statistical functions, mail merge. This makes the storage size of these applications fairly large.

There are several good reasons for using general purpose software:

• It is relatively cheap
• It is easily available from most computer shops
• It will have been thoroughly tested so there won't be any serious problems or bugs
• There will be lots of user support i.e. books, user guides, online help and discussion forums on the internet

2. Specialist SoftwareSpecialist application packages are generally not available in shops and they often have to be purchased directly from the manufacturer or a specialist firm.

These applications are designed to be used for specific tasks such as company payroll, stock control systems, appointment systems, ecommerce sites etc.

The applications have not been written for a specific company. They have been developed by a manufacturer to try to provide all of the features that they anticipate a company might need.

Like general purpose software, there may be many features that the company does not need, or the features which are available may not work exactly as they would like in their business.

It is possible for developers to adapt this specialist software somewhat and make it more specific for the company needs. However, they are limited in what can be changed. 3. Bespoke SoftwareAlthough specialist software might be the answer for many companies, there will be some organizations who find that it just doesn't do exactly what they want or it doesn't work with their current systems.

In this case, they might decide to have the software system they need designed and developed specifically for them. This is called 'tailor-made' or 'bespoke' software.

The main advantages are:

• the company will get the exact software/system that they need
• the software will work exactly how they want it to work
• the software will only have the features that they specifically need in their business.

The main disadvantages of this approach are:

• it takes a long time to develop such a system, between a few months to years
• it costs a great deal of money to develop such a system.
• the company may need to employ a team of people such as business analysts, programmers, testers etc
• there will be little in the way of user support and online help

Answer 3

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