Software Systems

Question 1

Name the 3 types of software

Answer 1

Source code

Open source software

Proprietary software

Question 2

Define source code

Answer 2

Raw code produced by developers which defines what they want the software to do

Question 3

Define open source software

Answer 3

Computer software with its source code made available with a license in which the copyright holder provides the rights to study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose

Question 4

Define proprietary software

Answer 4

Does not include source code and is known as closed source

E.g. when you download or buy software, you get proprietary software as you cannot get access to the source code nor you will be allowed to make changes.

Question 5

What are the two forms closed source programs tend to come in

Answer 5

Bespoke software

Off the shelf software

Question 6

Define bespoke software

Answer 6

Custom built, created for a single or small group of customers. They have identified a need within their business which no existing system will fully solve. Any software which is built will be specific to this business need and therefore will not be portable to other companies and problems.

This can be expensive and there will be a reliance on the software company to provide support

Question 7

Define off the shelf software

Answer 7

Software which you can buy ready-made

E.g. Office 2016, Adobe Suite etc.

May not fully solve the problems the business may have, however this will be cheaper than bespoke software and there will be plenty of support available, users will usually also be familiar with the software

Question 8

Advantages of a bespoke software

Answer 8

Can be designed to do exactly what the user wants

Can be written to run on specific hardware

Can be integrated with existing software

Question 9

Disadvantages of bespoke software

Answer 9

Generally a more expensive solution

Takes longer to set up a working solution

Question 10

Advantages of off the shelf software

Answer 10

Can be bought and installed straight away

Software is usually well documented

Generally less expensive solution

Software is tried and tested and is likely to contain fewer bugs than newly written software

Training may be available in software packages

Question 11

Disadvantages of off the shelf software

Answer 11

Users may need to compromise if the software doesn’t do exactly what they want

May have to wait a long time or forever for features to appear that they require

Question 11

Disadvantages of off the shelf software

Answer 11

Users may need to compromise if the software doesn’t do exactly what they want

May have to wait a long time or forever for features to appear that they require

Question 12

What are the different types of application software

Answer 12

Presentation software

Desktop publishing

Drawing packages

Database packages

Mobile apps

Question 13

Define presentation software

Answer 13

Allows the user to create presentations to convey information

Question 14

Define desktop publishing

Answer 14

Allows for many types of publication e.g. manuals, posters, banners

Key features:
Templates, layout of text and images

Not used to handle large amounts of text, that is for a word processor

Question 15

Define drawing packages

Answer 15

Come in two types: bitmap and vector. They both draw images, just in different ways

Vector images are made up of lines and shapes that can be dynamically resized without the loss of quality

Bitmap images are made of thousands of coloured dots, known as pixels, and when they are resized there is a noticeable drop in quality

Bitmap images tend to be high quality. File sizes are massive. Consequently, compression is required to allow the file to fit onto secondary storage or to be downloaded quickly over the Internet. A popular image compression format is jpeg.

Question 16

Define database packages

Answer 16

Database - a structure which organises data into tables, fields and records

E.g. Bank records, health details etc.

Key feature:
Able to search and sort data quickly by querying the data in the database

Question 17

Define mobile apps

Answer 17

Application that run on mobile

Unlike desktop,