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Information and Communication Technology Applications

Introduction
Notes
All computers need instructions in the manipulation of the data received. These instructions known
as programmes or software will, for instance specify now information should be rearranged for
machine storage and how to sort and format information to suitoutput specifications. Computer
software are either systems software or applications software. The former are further subdivided as
operating systems and programming languages. The activities of all the hardware and software
resources in the computer system are coordinated by the operating systems software.
Each computer has its own language known as ‘machine language’. ‘Symbolic languages’ are used
for writing a program. A computer converts instructions in one of these languages into ‘machine
language’ and starts its operation. The symbolic languages are further subdivided into ‘assembler
languages’ and ‘compiler languages’. Whereas assembler languages resemble machine languages,
compiler languages relates closely to procedure being written in natural language. Assembler
language is based on mnemonic codes for various instructions. There is one to one correspondence
between assembly instruction and machine code. Compiler language, also known as high-level
language is a general purpose procedure-oriented language. It is machine independent and makes
the job of the application programmer simple.
A large number of high-level programming languages have been devised. For example; COBOL-
74, FORTRAN-77, BASIC, PASCAL, PL/1, C language, SNOBOL, LISP, PROLOG, ALGOL, etc.
Similarly we have many ‘application programmes’. For example dBASE, Word Star, Lotus, CDS/
ISIS, etc. The important library and information oriented software packages are dBASE and CDS/
ISIS.
CDS/ISIS (Computerised Documentation System/Integrated Set of Information System) was
developed in 1975, and is maintained and distributed by the UNESCO’s division of software
Development and Application. It is a generalised system for information storage and retrieval of
bibliographic data. The new version is called CDS/ISIS Mini Micro Version 2.3. This version allows
the system to run on micro, mini and mainframe computers. Unesco has now empowered selected
institutions to distribute CDS/ISIS free of cost throughout the world for promoting computerisation
of activities and services in libraries and information centres. In India the package is distributed by
NISSAT.
Mention may be made about the recent development of CDS/ISIS by DESIDOC called SANJAY
and another by CMC called MAITHREYEE.
dBase was developed by Ashton-Tate during mid 1984. It is one of the large number of DBMS
(Database Management Systems) products available for many personal computers and operating
systems. dBASE IV is an advanced and fully featured DBMS for micro-computer users-from
beginners to advanced application programmers and developers. While dBASE III had only 50
commands, dBase IV 245 commands. dBase also contains comperhensive applications generation
facilities; an application of SQL (Structure Query Language); and a complete task-oriented
environment for non-programming users. dBASE IV is 100 per cent compatible with dBASE III +
data, index and program files. It offers efficient file organisation and data handling.

8.1 Programming Language

A programming language is an artificial language that can be used to control the behavior of a
machine (often a computer). Like human languages, programming languages have syntactic and
semantic rules used to define meaning. Programming languages are used to facilitate communication
about the task of organizing and manipulating information, and to express algorithms precisely.

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