Software engineering

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Software engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches. That is the application of engineering to software.

The term software engineering first appeared in the 1968 NATO Software Engineering Conference and was meant to provoke thought regarding the current "software crisis" at the time. Since then, it has continued as a profession and field of study dedicated to creating software that is of higher quality, cheaper, maintainable, and quicker to build. Since the field is still relatively young compared to its sister fields of engineering, there is still much work and debate around what software engineering actually is, and if it deserves the title engineering. It has grown organically out of the limitations of viewing software as just programming. Software development is a term sometimes preferred by practitioners in the industry who view software engineering as too heavy-handed and constrictive to the malleable process of creating software.

Yet, in spite of its youth as a profession, the field's future looks bright as Money Magazine and Salary.com rated software engineering as the best job in America in 2006.

Computer software

Computer software, or just software is a general term used to describe a collection of computer programs, procedures and documentation that perform some tasks on a computer system.
A screenshot of the OpenOffice.org Writer desktop software

The term includes:

* Application software such as word processors which perform productive tasks for users.
* Firmware which is software programmed resident to electrically programmable memory devices on board mainboards or other types of integrated hardware carriers.
* Middleware which controls and co-ordinates distributed systems.

Software includes websites, programs, video games etc. that are coded by programming languages like C, C++, etc.

* System software such as operating systems, which interface with hardware to provide the necessary services for application software.
* Testware which is an umbrella term or container term for all utilities and application software that serve in combination for testing asoftware package but not necessarily may optionally contribute to operational purposes. As such, testware is not a standing configuration but merely a working environment for application software or subsets thereof.

"Software" is sometimes used in a broader context to mean anything which is not hardware but which is used with hardware, such as film, tapes and records.

Software

Software is a general term used to describe a collection of computer programs, procedures and documentation that perform some tasks on an operating system.

The term includes:

* Application software such as word processors which perform productive tasks for users.
* Multimedia applications for playing multimedia.
* Firmware which is software programmed resident to electrically programmable memory devices on board mainboards or other types of integrated hardware carriers.
* Middleware which controls and co-ordinates distributed systems.

Software includes websites, programs, video games etc. that are coded by programming languages like C, C++, etc.

* System software such as operating systems, which interface with hardware to provide the necessary services for application software.
* Testware which is an umbrella term or container term for all utilities and application software that serve in combination for testing a software package but not necessarily may optionally contribute to operational purposes. As such, testware is not a standing configuration but merely a working environment for application software or subsets thereof.

"Software" is sometimes used in a broader context to mean anything which is not hardware but which is used with hardware, such as film, tapes and records.