What is Software?

Computer software is a set of instructions called programs which are fed into a computer to enable it to perform certain specific tasks. Some of these programs called applications, or user software, are written in any of the different computer languages, such as C, PASCAL, FORTRAN or BASIC. These programs can be of any size. Student programs for small numerical problems may consist of only 5 to 20 statements, whereas the accounting and management information programs that are used by large corporation or governments may have thousand of statements.

Different from this class of software is the system software which includes programs that translate user programs into machine language programs and then load these translated programs into main memory prior to execution. System software also includes the set of certain routines required to manage the operation of the physical resources such as the central processing unit, mass storage and input-output devices.

Ready-to-use software that is floppy disks with different programs are available today. On loading these programs in a computer, instructions for using that program appear on the screen and can be used straight away.