Chapter intro: Software, systems and languages

The last two chapters built the machine: the processor, its memory, its storage. On its own, none of that does a thing. This chapter is about what runs on it: the software that keeps it going, and the way people tell it what to do. The chapter comes in two halves, and the exam leans hardest on one video in each.

The first half is the software itself. If this is all new to you, start right at the top, with system software and application software, and how to tell the two apart. The first heavy hitter is what an operating system does. Examiners on every board write about it, and the marks go to answers that say exactly what it does, never vague ones. If your exam is close, press this one first. Utility software sits right beside it, the housekeeping tools that keep a computer in good shape. Not every board sets every video here, and each one says at the start who it's for. Robust software and finding vulnerabilities, for one, is set by a single board only. The second half turns to how people give a computer instructions. If you're coming straight from the processor chapter, start that half with high-level and low-level languages, which every board sets. The second heavy hitter is compilers, interpreters and assemblers. Translators turn up in examiners' reports again and again, so if your exam is close, it comes straight after. The chapter ends on the IDE, the set of tools you write, run and fix a program in. You can search for any video by its name or its code, and every code is on the list. The quickest way is the scholafly.com website, which lists every video in every subject.

Next in the chapter is System software and application software. Hopefully that's next in your feed - but if not, search for ScholaFly C S oh six, oh one.

For more, visit scholafly.com, or watch the next video.