M O D U L A R

S Y S T E M

COMPUTERS

Introduction to

Osman AY Muammer KSZ Osman BOZDA

www.zambak.com

Copyright 2003 Zambak Basm Yayn Eitim ve Turizm letmeleri Sanayi Ticaret A.. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form of recording without the prior written permission of the publisher. Digital Assembly Zambak Typesetting & Design Page Design Murat ALTINDA Publisher Zambak Basm Yayn Eitim ve Turizm letmeleri Sanayi Ticaret A.. Printed in stanbul - TURKEY ISBN 975-6402-50-4

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BASIC CONCEPTS
What is a Computer? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 How Do Computers Work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Types of Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Mainframe Computer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Minicomputer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Super Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Microcomputer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 The History of Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Important Stages in the History of Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Computers in Everyday Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Astronomy and Space Technology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Press and Publishing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Engineering, Architecture and Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Finance and Accounting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Biology and Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Banking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 The Military. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Measuring Data: Bits and Bytes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Taking Care of Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Using Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Buying a Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Memory (RAM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 IDE Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 PCI Bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 SCSI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Video Card (Video Adapter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Power Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Sound Card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Network Interface Card (NIC). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Modem (Modulator/Demodulator) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 TV Card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 PC Card. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Input Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Scanner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Microphone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Joystick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Light Pen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Touch Screen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 WebCam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Digital Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Output Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Monitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Plotter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Speaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

QUESTIONS

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Storage Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Hard (Fixed) Disk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Floppy Disk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 CD-ROM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 DVD-ROM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Zip Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Magnetic Tape. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

HARDWARE
The Physical Parts of a Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 System Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Chassis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Mainboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Central Processing Unit (CPU) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

SOFTWARE
Types of Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Operating Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
MS-DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 PC-DOS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Microsoft Windows 9x and Windows Me. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Mac OS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 OS/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 UNIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Novell NetWare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Linux. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Windows NT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Windows 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 BeOS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

COBOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Visual Basic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Delphi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Visual C++ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

MS-DOS
What is DOS?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 How to Run DOS? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Basic Concepts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Internal and External Commands. . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Working with Disks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Working with Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Working with Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Some Additional Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Application Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Word Processors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Spreadsheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Presentation Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 CAD/CAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Painting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Page Layout & Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 The Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Multimedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Antivirus Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Games. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Memory Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 The DOS Boot Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 The AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files . 70
AUTOEXEC.BAT file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 CONFIG.SYS file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 SOME DOS ERROR AND WARNING MESSAGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

REVIEW QUESTIONS & PRACTICES . . 76 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Programming Languages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Assembly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Basic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Fortran . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Pascal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 C++. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Java . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 ASP (Active Server Pages) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

What Is a Computer?
A computer is an electronic machine that makes mathematical calculations and logical comparisons quickly and without any mistakes. Computers take information (called data), process it, and show the results of the processing. They can store the results forever. For these reasons, computers have become a part of our lives. Computers consist of two parts, hardware and software. Hardware is the physical parts of the computer. Software is the programs in the computer. Software uses hardware to perform operations for the computer user. The relation between hardware and software is like the relation between our body and our spirit.

A Desktop Computer

How Do Computers Work?

Computers can store information in two different ways: in permanent storage (for example, on a disk or a CD), and in temporary storage, also called the computers memory, or RAM. Data in temporary storage only lasts as long as the computer is switched on. This is why the storage is called temporary. When you switch on a computer, first a special piece of software called the operating system is copied (loaded) from permanent storage to the RAM. The computer gets data from an input device such as a keyboard, mouse, hard disk, or scanner, and makes all the calculations and the comparisons in the central processing unit (CPU). The CPU is like the Put a tick ( ) to show if the statements are true or false. computers brain. It uses STATEMENT TRUE FALSE the RAM to maintain the data. When the CPU has a. Computers make calculations very fast. processed the data, it b. Computers can compare numbers, such as 10 > 5. sends the results to an c. Computers can ride a bicycle. output device such as a d. Computers are intelligent machines. monitor, hard disk, or e. Computers dont forget. printer. f. Computers can draw pictures. When you switch a g. Computers know how to swim and can swim. computer off, the computer copies any h. Computers need food to work. important data in the i. Computers are a kind of TV. RAM back to permanent

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A
6

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storage.

Types of Computer
Mainframe Computers

A mainframe computer is a big, powerful, and expensive computer. Many people can use the power of a mainframe computer at the same time, using either a PC (personal computer) or a dumb terminal. A PC performs a lot of processing itself. A dumb terminal uses the mainframe computer to do all the processing, and just shows the results on a screen. Large organizations, for example banks and insurance companies, use mainframe computers.
Minicomputers

A Mainframe Computer

Like mainframe computers, minicomputers are very powerful and expensive. Mainframes and minicomputers are used for almost the same things. Mid-sized companies use minicomputers.
A Laptop Computer Supercomputers

A supercomputer is an incredibly powerful computer with a very big capacity for processing data. Supercomputers are often used by the military. They are also used for research and for things such us weather forecasting, where a huge amount of data has to be processed rapidly.
Microcomputers

Microcomputers are usually only used by one person at a time. An IBM PC and Apple Macintosh are two kinds of microcomputer. There are desktop, laptop, palmtop, pocket, and tablet models of microcomputers.

The History of Computers

The electronic computer industry has developed faster than any other industry in history. The first electronic computer was called the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator). It was built at the University of Pennsylvania in 1943, and it was used for military calculations, for weather forecasting, and for atomic energy calculations. It weighed 30 tons and it filled a big room. Dr. John von Neumann invented a technology for program storage at the

BASIC CONCEPTS

An Abacus

University of Princeton in 1945. This technology allowed a computer to store a program in memory. People could change the program for different purposes. Dr. John von Neumanns computer made it possible to develop the computers we use today. There are five main periods in the history of computers. They show how the technology that computers use for processing data has changed and developed. 1. Vacuum Tubes (19301958): The first computers used vacuum tubes to make calculations. The ENIAC was a vacuum tube computer. 2. Transistors (1959): Transistors repleced vacuum tubes because they are smaller, faster, and use less energy. 3. Integrated Circuits (1965): Integrated circuits use semiconductors to make complex circuits for data processing. This was a big development for the computer industry. Big boards with transistors which took up a lot of space were replaced with small boards that reduced the size of computers and made them more reliable, and less expensive. 4. Microprocessors (1971): The computer company Intel introduced its

Match the statements to compare computers and humans.

COMPUTERS
1. A computer never gets tired and can work continuously. 2. A computer is an electronic machine.

?
d

HUMANS
a. A human is not a machine. b. A human performs mathematical and logical operations slowly. c. The storage capacity of a human is very high. d. Humans can only work continuously for a number of hours. e. Humans can think, and they have some IQ. f. Humans need food and water to work. g. Each human being is different.

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3. Computers need electricity to work. 4. Computers perform arithmetic and logical operations very fast and without mistakes. 5. A computer cannot think, its IQ is zero. 6. Computers can be classified by their configurations. 7. Computers have a limited storage capacity.

A
8

first microprocessor in 1971. Microprocessors allow computers to perform more accurate operations in less time. 5. PC (1981): The computer company IBM introduced its first personal computer, called the Datamaster, in 1981.

Important Inventions in the History of Computers

3000 BC: People began to use an abacus for calculations. 1642: Blaise Pascal made a mechanical calculator for his father to calculate Cray1 Computer

BASIC CONCEPTS

taxes. This calculator sometimes gave incorrect results. 1670: Gottfried von Leibnitz improved Pascals calculator. Leibnitzs calculator could perform four arithmetical operations and square root operations correctly. 1842: Charles Babbage made a machine (called Difference Engine) that could solve more complex problems than Leibnitzs calculator. 1890: Hermann Hollerith designed a computer that used punched cards. 1939: John Vincent Atanasoff developed the first electronic digital computer. 1943: J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly created the ENIAC. People say that the ENIAC is the first real computer. 1946: John von Neumann found a way to store a program in a computers memory. 1951: J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly developed the first general-purpose commercial computer, the UNIVAC. 1958: Seymour Cray started to use transistors in computers. 1964: IBM used integrated circuits in the IBM 360 computer.

Difference Engine

Find an abacus and learn how it is used. Use your abacus to perform the calculations.

3+4=? 15 + 27 = ?

8+9=? 85 + 145 = ? 2*3=? 15 * 45 = ? 60 - 15 = ? 97 / 12 = ?

1853 + 3945 = ? 9*7=? 6-4=? 6/4=?

S S

ELF

Find some more information and pictures about important people and machines in the history of the computers. Put the pictures on the wall.

ESEAR C H

TU D Y

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1971: Intel introduced the first microprocessor. 1975: The first microcomputer, called the Altair, was introduced. 1981: IBM introduced its first PC. 1984: Apple introduced the first Macintosh.

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Find five people who use computers at work. Complete the table with the information you find.

NAME & SURNAME

John Smith

JOB

USES A COMPUTER FOR...

Keeping a list of students, with their grades, absences, and comments. Preparing presentations, English teacher quizzes, and exams. Showing visual materials in lessons.

S
Computers in Everyday Life
Astronomy and Space Technology

Astronomy and space technology need complex and precise calculations. Without computers, it would have been impossible for humans to go into space, to put satellites in orbit, and to study and follow planets, stars, comets, and meteors. Mistakes made by computers have caused big losses in space work. For example, some years ago, space scientists lost the satellite Clementine in space because of a mistake in a computer program.
Press and Publishing

Preparing books, newsletters, and magazines has become easier with computers. Writers, designers, and publishers can prepare and store their work on a computer.
Engineering, Architecture and Design

Engineers can prepare plans quickly and easily using CAD (Computer-Aided Design) programs. They can print their plans from a computer and share them with other people.
Finance and Accounting

Finance and accounting need fast and accurate calculations. Computers help companies to manage money and make good financial decisions.

ur vey

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11

Biology and Medicine

Today, computers control almost all of the medical machines used in hospitals and for research. These machines help us to discover and cure illnesses much faster. For example, the Human Genome Project is an important research project that is using computers to find a map of the human genome.
1 byte 1 kilobyte (KB) 1 megabyte (MB) 1 gigabyte (GB) 1 terabyte (TB) 1 petabyte (PB) 1 exabyte (EB) 23 bits 210 bytes 220 bytes 230 bytes 240 bytes 240 bytes 260 bytes 8 bits 1024 bytes 1024 kilobytes 1024 megabytes 1024 gigabytes 1024 terabytes Banking

Banks benefit from computer technology more than any other kind of company. Banks can store account information and perform banking operations using computers. Bank customers can use a computer to access their bank account from home.
Entertainment

Many people use computers to play games, listen to music, watch movies, or share jokes with their friends. Multimedia computers are special computers for listening to music and watching movies. There are also special game computers such as PlayStation, Dreamcast, and Xbox.
1024 petabytes Communication

The Internet has made big changes in communication. Today, people can send e-mails, voice messages, and video clips to each other in seconds. They can also have typed conversations (chat) with other Internet users all over the world.
Education

A scientific investigation has shown that education will be quite different in the 21st century with CBET (Computer-Based Education and Training). Research into CBET shows that computers can: improve the quality of education.

Keep your computer clean

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help students to learn faster. help students to study in groups easily. help students to obtain information faster, more easily, and more cheaply. make administration tasks easier in schools. For example, preparing a timetable for a school takes just a few minutes with a computer. help parents to follow their childrens grades using the Internet.
The Military

The military use very powerful computers to control missiles and satellites, and decide about military targets. They also use computers to train airplane pilots with special simulation programs.

Measuring Data B ts and Bytes : i

We measure computer information (data) in bits and bytes. Bit is short for binary digit. It is the smallest unit of information that a computer can understand. One bit represents a 1 or 0 digit in a binary numeral, or a true or false logical condition. A bit is represented physically by a high or low voltage in a circuit or a small magnetized spot on a disk. A human probably wouldnt find the information in one bit of data very useful. Byte is short for binary term. A byte usually contains eight bits. It can represent a single character, such as a letter, a digit, or a punctuation mark. Because a byte represents only a small amount of information, we usually measure amounts of computer memory and storage in kilobytes (one kilobyte is 1024 bytes), megabytes (one megabyte is 1048576 bytes), or gigabytes (one gigabyte is 1073741824 bytes).

Taking Care of Your Computer

Computers are very powerful, but they need proper care. Follow these rules to keep your computer working correctly. Keep your computer clean and dry, and away from direct sunlight. Keep your computer away from heat sources, such as electric heaters. Do not eat or drink near

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your computer. Do not place the computer near objects that create strong magnetic fields, such as stereo speakers. Do not use a mobile phone when you are near your computer. Type gently on the keyboard. Do not hit the keys too hard. Never put anything except your disks into the disk drives.

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Using Your Computer

When you use a computer, your body can get tired. Follow these rules to stay comfortable and healthy in front of your computer.

Find the words in the wordsearch puzzle. Do you remember what each word means?

COMPUTER CPU RAM MAINFRAME PC CAD

B Y T E I T C P U M M E G A B Y T E E T D H A R D W A R E T E A M N A E Q M O A E M A R F N I A M N V C S T T M F R Z O I B X G S I O H I Y A S E U T R A N S I S T

MAIL EN IA C TR AN SI STO R ABACUS PA S C A L DISK

M O N I TO R S O F T WA R E H A R D WA R E BIT BYTE KI LO BY TE

MEGABYTE C A L C U L ATION

C C P L O P L A U Y A Z M

A E X O M E L B P N W M M

B F U K R U R A M O T B A S B

A O K S C S S D O S F I U M O

E D G L A O E P C O O L M A O

N A A S N F B S R D S D I N K

P C A M D M U I E P A S C A L

U R K S I D R I V E R A E Y M

N TER TAI M EN T N

Y O E T Y B O L I K C

I O E A R I A R C E B D

I O Z O

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Put the computer on a flat table at a comfortable height and distance. Make sure that the display is a bit below your eye level, to avoid hurting your eyes. Put the computer so that it is directly in front of you when you work. Make sure you have enough space to operate the different parts of the computer (keyboard, mouse, etc.) easily. If you use a paper holder, put it at about the same height and distance from you as the monitor. Set your chair height so that the keyboard is at (or slightly below) the level of your elbow. You should be able to type comfortably with your shoulders relaxed. Your knees should be slightly higher than your hips. If necessary, use a foot rest to raise your knees. Set the back of your chair so that it supports the lower part of your spine. Sit straight so that your knees, hips, and elbows are at about 90 degree angles when you work. Do not lean forward or back too far. Put the computer so that sunlight or bright indoor light does not reflect off the screen and hurt your eyes. If possible, use soft, indirect lighting in your computer work area. Change your position often. If you use a computer for a long time, stand up and stretch your wrists, hands, and legs regularly. Every fifteen or twenty minutes, look at an object that is far away, to avoid hurting your eyes with too much close work. Take frequent short breaks (for example, two or three minutes every half hour) instead of one or two long breaks. Have regular eye examinations. Visit a doctor if your body hurts or aches because of too much computer work.

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Buying a Computer
One day you might want to buy your own computer. There are many different types of computer to choose from. Here is a list of some important things to think about if you are choosing a computer.
Your needs: What do you want to do with your computer? For example, if you want to play music and games, you should buy a multimedia computer. If you want to use the Internet, your computer needs a modem or network connection. Memory (RAM): Your computer should have enough memory to run your

applications. Make sure that it is possible to add new RAM modules or replace existing RAM modules with larger ones.
Hard Disk: Your hard disk should be big enough to store all your

programs, documents, pictures, music, and movies.

Monitor: Find a monitor size to suit your needs. If you want to do

multimedia design, you might prefer a bigger screen.

Disk Drives: Your computer should have at least one floppy disk drive and

one CD-ROM drive. If you want, you can add a DVD-ROM drive or a CD writer.
Sound: If you want to listen to music, watch movies, play games, or make

your own music, movie or sound effects, you will need a high quality sound card and speakers.
Speed: The speed of the microprocessor has a big effect on your computers speed. However, other parts of the computer (for example the RAM, disk drives, and the mainboard) also affect the speed of a computer. Choose good quality parts if you want good computer speed. Cost: When you buy a computer, think about the relationship between

price and performance. If you buy a very cheap computer, you might not be able to run all your programs. However, dont pay extra money for power or parts that you probably wont use.
Software: Your computer should be able to run the programs that you

need at the moment and in the near future. Good software will help you to get the best performance from your computer. Finally, remember that computers are always changing. Todays latest computers may be out of date in a few years and your computer will no longer be good enough for you. Choose a good quality computer so that you can change each part as you need to.

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What is a computer?

1
What is a calculator?

3
For each expression below, write the result and determine whether it is an arithmetical or logical expression. EXPRESSION 5+7 4*(8 3) 5>7 The earth is bigger than the moon sqrt(sqr(X)) X FALSE RESULT 12 ARITHMETICAL LOGICAL

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2
What are the differences between a calculator and a computer? Which one is more useful?

The Physical Parts of a Computer

The physical parts of a computer are called hardware. In this chapter, we will divide the different types of hardware into four groups: the system unit, input devices, output devices, and storage devices. The system unit contains the main components of the computer, such as the mainboard, CPU, RAM, video card, hard disk, disk drives, and the power supply. It can also contain optional components such as a sound card or a network card. We use input devices to give data to the computer. The most common input devices are the keyboard and the mouse. Other types of input device are a scanner, joystick, light pen, touch screen, webcam, and digital camera. Output devices are the components where the computer shows the results. A printer, plotter, and loud speaker are all output devices. Storage devices are used to store data permanently. A hard disk, floppy disk, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, Zip disk, and tape cartridge are examples of storage devices. Some hardware parts (such as the CPU, mainboard, RAM, power supply, keyboard, graphics card, and hard disk) are necessary for computer to work. Some parts are optional and simply increase a computers functionality. A printer, a modem, and a network card are examples of optional components.

Back, Side, and Front Views of a Computer Chassis

The System Unit

All of the main components of a computer are grouped together in the system unit. For instance, the system unit includes the computer systems motherboard (including the processor), and items such as hard disks, floppy disks, and CD-ROM drives, etc.
Chassis

The chassis is the metal and plastic box that contains the system unit. Most people dont think that the chassis is an important part of the computer. However, it is not just the shell of your computer, it supports all the internal parts. It also protects your system from the outside world and helps to keep the system unit components cool. The closed design and good air flow inside the chassis are especially important for components such as the CPU and hard drive, which can get very hot when they are working.

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Mainboard

The mainboard (also called the motherboard, or system board) is the biggest board inside your system unit. All the main components of your computer connect to the mainboard. The CPU is normally situated on your mainboard along with all the other electronic components. All the other boards (cards) in your computer connect to the mainboard. Other items, such as the hard disk, are attached to the mainboard either directly or via cables. Mainboards are getting smaller and smaller as the components become more integrated. Nowadays, if you A Mainboard open up a system unit it can look quite empty. The ROM-BIOS (Read Only Memory-Basic Input Output System) chip is a special microchip on your computers mainboard. It contains software that allows your computer to work with your operating system. For example, it copies your operating system into RAM when you switch on your computer. Buses are data paths on the motherboard that connect the CPU to the different parts of the mother board, such as the chips and cable connections. Expansion slots are sockets on the mainboard which allow you to extend the computers features and capabilities. Expansion slots hold expansion cards (such as a video card, sound card, or network card) and connect them to the buses. Laptops and other portable computers use special expansion slots called PCMCIA slots, which accept small expansion cards called PC Cards. Serial ports are sockets located at the back of your computer that allow you to connect items such as modems to the computer. Serial ports are commonly labeled COM1 or COM2. Bus Type Bus Width Bus Speed Parallel ports are sockets located at the back of your ISA 16 bits 8 MHz computer that enable you to connect items such as EISA 32 bits 8 MHz printers to the computer. Parallel ports are commonly labeled LPT1 or LPT2. VL-bus 32 bits 25 MHz PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports are used to connect a VL-bus 32 bits 33 MHz keyboard and mouse to the mainboard. PCI 32 bits 33 MHz A battery on the mainboard is needed to store some PCI 64 bits 33 MHz important information (such as the date and time, and maybe PCI 64 bits 66 MHz a user password) while your computer is switched off. An internal speaker connected to the mainboard allows your PCI 64 bits 133 MHz computer to send you error or warning beeps while it is running. Data Bus Specifications The USB (Universal Serial Bus) is quite a new item inside a PC. USB ports are located at the back of the system unit. They allow you to plug in devices designed for the USB such as scanners, digital cameras, and printers. The bus arbitrator (chipset) is an integrated circuit on the motherboard. It controls how the mainboard buses are used. If two different devices try to use the same bus at the same time, there can be a problem. The bus arbitrator prevents this problem.

MB/sec 16 MBps 32 MBps 100 MBps 132 MBps 132 MBps 264 MBps 512 MBps 1 GBps

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Central Processing Unit (CPU)

The CPU (Central Processing Unit) is one of the most important components inside your computer. It is like the brain of your computer because it performs all the computer calculations. CPU speed is measured in gigahertz (GHz) and has an important effect on the overall speed of your computer. The main CPU manufacturers today are Intel (8086, 80486, Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium-II, Pentium-III, and Pentium-IV processors), AMD (K6/2 and Athlon processors), Motorola (68000 and PowerPC G4 processors), VIA (C3 1 GigaPro processor), and TI.

Microprocessors Memory (RAM)

RAM (Random Access Memory) is temporary memory that the computer uses to store applications and data that are in use, for example, the operating system, and a word processor or database program. When you create data such as a letter or a picture, the computer stores the data in RAM and then copies it to the hard disk when you save your work. If you have a lot of RAM, applications can run faster. When the amount of RAM is not enough for an application, a part of the hard disk is used as RAM. This part of the disk is called virtual memory.

RAM

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IDE Interface

Storage devices such as floppy disk drives, hard disk drives, and CD-ROM drives usually connect to the computer through an IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) interface. An IDE interface is a standard way for storage devices to connect to a computer. IDE is not the original technical name for the interface standard. It was originally called AT Attachment (ATA) technology, because engineers developed it for the IBM AT computer.
PCI Bus

During the early 1990s, Intel introduced a new bus standard, the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI). A PCI bus connects the CPU, memory, and expansion slots on the mainboard. PCI is faster and more reliable than older bus technologies such as ISA. A PCI bus can connect up to five expansion slots (external devices) to the CPU. Usually there is only one PCI bus on a mainboard, although some mainboards have more.
Graphics Card PCI Slots and an AGP Slot

Modern computers use a lot of graphics. Many operating systems use a graphical user interface (GUI) as the main interface between the user and the computer. You might also enjoy playing video games or creating 3D graphics and animation. In fact, if you use your computer for anything except basic office tasks, you probably use lots of graphics. A graphics card in a modern PC can connect to the mainboard in one of several different ways: On-board - The graphics chips and memory are part of the mainboard. PCI - The graphics card plugs into the PCI bus. AGP - The graphics card plugs into a special slot designed especially for graphics devices. AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) is a special bus technology that was developed by Intel as a way to improve the performance and speed of graphics hardware connected to a PC.
SCSI Bus

Most home and small-office PCs use an IDE hard disk drive and have a PCI bus for adding components to the computer. However, a lot of computers, particularly expensive workstations and older Apple Macintosh computers, use a SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) bus to connect components such as hard disk drives, scanners, CD-ROM drives, printers and tape drives to the mainboard. SCSI is basically a fast communication bus that allows you to connect multiple devices to your computer.

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Video Card (Video Adapter)

A video card converts the digital signals in a computer to a special format that can be displayed on a monitor. Some video cards also have a TV out to use a TV as a screen. A video card has its own microprocessor and memory. Today, the size of the memory is up to 128 megabytes.
Power Supply

The power supply is an electrical device that transforms the standard electricity supply (115120 Volts AC in the United States, or 220 Volts AC in Europe) into the lower voltages (3.3, or 5 to 12 volts DC) that computer systems require. Personal computer power supplies are measured in watts. They usually range from about 90 watts to 300 watts.
Sound Card

A Video Card

A sound card converts digital sound signals to analog sound signals and sends them to the speakers so that you can hear sounds. If you have a microphone and suitable software, you can also record sounds. You can also buy special software called speech recognition software, which recognizes your voice and displays the words you say on your monitor. In the future, speech recognition software might replace the keyboard.
Network Interface Card (NIC)

A network interface card allows computers to communicate with each other through cables. It converts digital signals to analog signals and sends these analog signals to other network interface cards in other computers. Those cards convert the analog signals back to digital signals. In this way, computers can communicate with each other. Network interface cards are often used in offices to connect computers in the same room or building. To communicate over longer distances, office computers usually use a modem.
Modem (Modulator/Demodulator)

A modem is a device that connects your computer to the telephone system. A modem converts digital data on your computer into analog signals that can be sent over a telephone line. It also converts the analog signals that it receives into digital data. If you want to connect to the Internet using a telephone line, you will need a modem.
A Modem

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Todays modems have a speed of 56000 bits per second. Modems can be internal or external. An internal modem plugs directly into a slot on the mainboard. An external modem plugs into one of the computer ports at the back of your system unit.
TV Card

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TV cards usually have two functions, TV decoding and TV tuning. The TV decoder transfers the picture that is on the screen to a TV. This is sometimes useful for business presentations. The TV tuner allows you to watch TV channels on the monitor so that your monitor becomes like a TV.
PC Card

Number the statements in the correct order from one to seven, to describe how to send an e-mail. When your message reaches your friends computer, the analog signals are changed back to the digital signals that are now displayed on your friends computer. Type a message to your friend who also has a computer with a modem. This whole process is reversed as your friend types a message to you from his computer to yours. 1 Attach a modem to your computer.

A PC card is a small, creditYour modem changes your message into analog signals that can travel card-sized board that extends a through telephone lines to your friends house. computers ability, for example, Connect your computer to a telephone line. by providing more memory, or Your friend enjoys reading your message. working like a modem. PC cards are particulary useful for laptops and other personal computers which do not have room for full-size expansion cards. PC cards connect to the outside of a computer through a special socket, called a PCMCIA slot.

Put a tick ( ) to show if the statements are true or false.

STATEMENT
a. All the cards in a computer are connected to the motherboard. b. The CPU is like a computers brain.

TRUE FALSE

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c. There are several motherboards in a computer. d. Motherboard, mainboard, and system board refer to the same device. e. The CPU is situated on the mainboard. f. The video card sends information to the monitor. g. All modems are internal devices.

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Follow the instructions to see what you have in your system unit. You will need a Phillips (cross) screwdriver. 1. Switch off your computer and unplug the power cable from the computer. 2. Open the chassis. 3. Take out the IDE cable between the CD-ROM drive and the mainboard. 4. Unplug the power cable from the CD-ROM drive. 5. Take out the CD-ROM drive. 6. Repeat steps 3,4, and 5 for the hard disk. 7. Take out the other boards in the system unit. 8. Remove the RAM modules from the mainboard. 9. Remove the CPU from the mainboard. 10. Find the power supply. 11. Find the ROM-BIOS chip. 12. Find the battery. 13. Find the expansion slots. 14. Find the chipset (bus arbitrator). 15. Find the buses. 16. Find the internal speaker. 17. Find the parallel, serial, PS/2, and USB ports. 18. Reassemble your computer. 19. Check that your computer works properly.

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Input Devices
Keyboard

A Keyboard

The keyboard is the most common way to enter information into a computer. Today, standard keyboards have 104 or 105 keys. An electronic circuit inside the keyboard transmits the code of a pressed key to the CPU. Most of the keys on a keyboard are used to enter numbers, letters, and punctuation marks. There are also function keys (used for special functions in applications), keys for working with text and documents (for example, the Page Up and Page Down keys), and other keys used to make special key combinations (Alt and Ctrl).
Function Keys

The function keys on a keyboard are labeled F1, F2, F3, and so on. They are located along the left side or across the top of the keyboard (or both). Function keys are used in application programs or by the operating system as a faster way to access certain features of the software. For example, pressing F1 when an application is running often displays a help screen.

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Enter Key

The Enter key (also called the Return key) is used to signal the end of an entered command or line of text, so that the computer can begin processing. In word processing programs, pressing the Enter key starts a new paragraph.
Ctrl Key

The Ctrl (control) key is used with other keys to access special software functions faster. For example, in some word processing applications, pressing Ctrl+C (Ctrl with the C key) copies text.
Spacebar

The spacebar is a long key on the bottom row of most keyboards that sends a space character to the computer.
Arrow Keys

Most keyboards have four keys that are labeled with arrows pointing up, down, left, and right. Pressing an arrow key usually moves the cursor (the place where you enter text on the screen) or, in some programs, extends a section of selected text.
Page Up Key

The Page Up key is a standard key (often labeled PgUp) on most computer keyboards. Its function changes in different programs. In word processing programs, pressing the Page Up key moves the cursor up to the top of the previous page, or up a specific number of lines.
Page Down Key

The Page Down key is a standard key (often labeled PgDn) on most computer keyboards. Like the Page Up key, its function changes in different programs. In word processing programs, pressing the Page Down key moves the cursor down to the top of the next page, or down a specific number of lines.
Home Key

The Home key controls the position of the cursor. Pressing the Home key moves the cursor to a certain position, usually the start of a line, the start of a screen, or the start of a file, depending on the program.

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End Key

The End key also controls the position of the cursors. Pressing the End key moves the cursor to a certain position, usually to the end of a line, the end of a screen, or the end of a file, depending on the program.
Caps Lock Key

The Caps Lock key changes the input from the keyboard letter keys between capital letters (A, B, C, etc.) and lower case letters (a, b, c, etc.). The Caps Lock key doesnt change the input of numbers, punctuation marks, or other symbols.
Shift Key

The Shift key also changes the input from other keys. For example, pressing Shift with the A key makes a capital A instead of a lower case a. Pressing Shift with other keys makes punctuation characters and sometimes performs special operations.
Backspace Key

Pressing the Backspace key moves the cursor to the left, one character at a time, usually erasing each character on the screen as it moves.
Escape Key

In many applications, pressing the Escape key (labeled ESC or Esc) moves you back to a previous menu, or exits the application.
Insert Key

The Insert key (labeled Insert or Ins) can perform different functions in different applications. In word processing applications, pressing Insert often changes between an overwrite mode (where typed characters delete the existing text) and a text or character insert mode.
Pause Key

Pressing the Pause key temporarily stops the operation of a program or a command. The Pause key is used, for example, to stop text moving up the screen so that you can read a multiscreen listing or document.

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Print Screen Key

Pressing the Print Screen key usually makes a copy of the screen display and sends it to the printer. Some programs also use the Print Screen key to copy a screen image and save it on the hard disk.
Tab Key

The Tab key, labeled with a left-pointing and a right-pointing arrow, is most commonly used in word processing programs to insert tab characters (long spaces) into a document. In other applications, the Tab key is often used to move the screen focus or cursor to different parts of the screen. Many database and spreadsheet programs allow you to press the Tab key to move around within a record or between table cells.
Num Lock Key

The Num Lock key is also called the Numeric Lock key. Pressing Num Lock activates the numeric keypad on the right side of the keyboard so that you can use the keypad like a calculator, for entering numbers and calculations.
Numeric Keypad

The numeric keypad is a set of number and symbol keys, which is usually on the right side of a keyboard. When the Numeric Lock (Num Lock) is on, the numeric keypad keys produce numbers on the screen. When the Numeric Lock is off, the numeric keypad keys move the cursor and the focus around the screen.

A Numeric Keypad

Draw your computer keyboard on a piece of paper. Take an article from an English newspaper. Count the number of times each letter occurs and write the numbers on the corresponding keyboard keys in your picture. Do you think the keyboard is well designed?

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Mouse

A mouse is another very popular input device, which is used to point to things and select things on the screen. A small ball underneath the mouse tells the computer when the mouse is moved across a surface, and the computer moves the on-screen pointer to follow. There are usually two or three mouse buttons that you can press (click) to choose commands and select things on the screen. A Mouse Two mouse clicks close together are called a double click. A mouse is called a relative pointing device because there are no limits to its movement, and because its position does not map directly to a position on the screen (for example, if you move the mouse by picking it up, the screen position doesnt change).
Scanner

A scanner uses special light sensors to capture (or photograph) an image and make a digital copy, for example on your screen. You can then use special text or graphics software to work with the scanned image. The most popular types of scanner are flatbed scanners (where the scanner moves the light sensors over the image), and handheld scanners (where a human moves the sensors over the image).
Microphone A Flatbed Scanner

A microphone converts sound waves into electrical signals that can be understood by your computers sound card. The sound card converts the electrical signals into digital data that your computer can process. For example, you can use a microphone to store speech or music on your computer.
Joystick

A joystick is another kind of pointing device, which is often used for computer games. A joystick has a base, usually with one or more control buttons, and a vertical stem, which can more in any direction to control the movement of an object on the screen. The buttons activate different software features.

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A joystick is usually a relative pointing device, like a mouse: the object on the screen moves when the stem is moved, and stops moving when the stem is relased. In industrial control applications, a joystick can also be an absolute pointing device, with each position of the stem mapped to a specific location on the screen.
Light Pen

A light pen is an input device like a pen that is connected to a computers monitor. You can use a light pen to select items and choose commands on the screen by pointing the pen at the screen, and then either pressing a clip on the side of the pen or touching the screen with the pen (the equivalent of performing a mouse click).
Touch Screen

Joysticks

A touch screen is a computer screen which can recognize the location of a touch on its surface. You can touch the screen to make a selection or move a cursor. The simplest type of touch screen is made up of a grid of sensing lines, which sense the vertical and horizontal location of the touch. Touch screens are sometimes used in ATM (banking) machines.
Webcam

A webcam is a small digital movie camera mounted on your PC monitor which allows you to exchange sound and video across the Internet in real time, i.e., as they are recorded.
Digital Camera

A digital camera is a type of camera that stores photographed images electronically instead of on traditional film. A digital camera uses a special device to capture an image through the lens when you take a picture. The camera stores the image in a storage medium such as a hard disk, which is inside the camera. After the image has been stored, you can transfer it by cable to the computer using software supplied with the camera.

Digital Cameras

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Output Devices
Monitor

A monitor, or computer screen, is a very common type of output device. A monitor displays images which have been generated by the computers video card. The monitor is attached to the video card by a cable. There are two main types of monitor: flat panel monitors, and cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors. A flat panel monitor uses a liquid crystal display (LCD) instead of a cathode ray tube to display data. Flat panel monitors occupy much less physical space than CRT monitors.
Printer

A 15 (Fifteen Inch) Monitor

A printer is an output device that prints text and computer-generated images onto paper or onto another medium, such as transparent film. There are many different types of printer.

LASER PRINTERS

INKJET PRINTERS

DOT MATRIX PRINTERS

Laser printers produce high print quality at high speed. They are called laser printers because they have a small laser inside them.

I k e p i t r u e t n j tst njt rnes s iy e o spray ink onto the paper. Ike njt printers are very quiet and poue pit qaiy smlr t rdc rn ult iia o lsr pitr, atog lsr ae rnes lhuh ae pitr aesilfse r n e s r t l a t r. Ike pitr ae iel fr njt rnes r da o people who want to print small numbers of high quality copies, where speed is not important, for example in a

Dot matrix printers push a row of pins through an ink ribbon onto the paper. The print quality increases with the number of pins. Most modern dot matrix printers have 24 pins. Dot matrix printers are used for cheaper, low quality printing, for example, printing stock information in a factory.

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Plotter

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A plotter is an output device similar to a printer, but for larger images. Plotters use either pens, or electrostatic charges and special chemicals, to print an image. Pen plotters draw on paper or transparent film with one or more colored pens. Electrostatic plotters draw a pattern of electrostatically charged dots on the paper, and then apply chemicals to keep the pattern in place.
Speaker

Put a tick ( ) to show if each device is an input device or an output device.

DEVICE
Keyboard Monitor Printer Mouse Scanner Joystick Microphone Speaker Floppy disk Plotter Touch screen Modem

INPUT

OUTPUT

A speaker is an output device that plays sound generated by your computers sound card. The speaker is attached to the sound card by a cable. Most computers also have an internal speaker that is attached to the mainboard and which can play simple sounds.

Storage Devices
Hard (Fixed) Disk

Match each word in column A to the related word in column B.

Hard disks are the main large data storage A area inside your computer. Hard disks are Apple juice used to store your programs and data. They Apple are much faster than most other types of Squeeze storage device and can also hold much more data (up to 160 Gigabytes). A hard disk is made up of platters. Platters are rigid disks made of metal or plastic. A platter is divided into sides (top and bottom), tracks (rings on each surface), and sectors (sections of each ring). Sectors are the smallest physical storage units on a disk. Usually, each sector holds 512 bytes of data. A set of two to eight sectors grouped together is called a cluster. The computer reads information from the hard disk through a fixed sensor called the disk head. The hard disk platters spin round underneath the disk head so that the computer can read the data tracks. A hard disk drive has a speed between 4500 and 7200 rpm (revolutions per minute), which means that the platters spin round between 4500 and 7200 times every minute. The boot sector is a special part of the disk that is used when the operating system starts. It contains a short machine language program that loads the operating system into RAM.

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B
Input Process Output

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A Hard Disk Drive

When a hard disk is manufactured, the platters are empty and so your computer cant read them. The process of creating the tracks and sectors on the platters and preparing the disk for use is called formatting. There are two types of formatting: low-level formatting and high-level formatting. The process of low-level formatting a drive creates the tracks and sectors on the platter. Low-level formatting writes the start and end points of each sector onto the platters. This process prepares the drive to hold blocks of bytes. High-level formatting writes special file storage structures, onto the sectors. This process prepares the drive to hold files. There are two ways to measure the performance of a hard disk: Data rate - The data rate is the number of bytes per second that the drive can send to the CPU. The data rate is usually between 5 and 40 megabytes per second. Seek time - The seek time is the amount of time between when the CPU requests a file and when the first byte of the file is sent to the CPU. The seek time is usually between 10 and 20 milliseconds.
Floppy Disk

Floppy disks are also called diskettes. They are very slow compared to hard disks or CD-ROMs, and hold a smaller amount of data (1.44 megabytes). Floppy disks are also quite fragile. Follow these rules to keep your data and floppy disks safe. Keep floppy disks away from magnets and magnetic fields. Dont take a diskette out of the drive while the drive light is on. Keep floppy disks away from very hot and cold places. Dont touch the surface of a floppy disk. Dont leave a floppy disk in the drive while you are not using it. Keep your disks in a closed box.

A Floppy Disk Drive

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CD-ROM R

CD-ROM is short for Compact DiscRead Only Memory. A CD-ROM disk can hold a very large amount of data (usually 650 - 700 megabytes). This is the same as the storage capacity of over 450 floppy disks.
DVD-ROM R

DVD stands for Digital Video Disc, or Digital Versatile Disc. A DVD-ROM is like a CD-ROM, but it stores information in a different way so that it has a much bigger capacity than a CD-ROM (about 4.7 or 8.5 gigabytes of data on one side, or 17 gigabytes on a disk with two sides). Because DVD-ROMs can store so much data, they are often used to store movies and animation.
Zip Disk

A CD-ROM Drive

A Zip disk looks like a floppy disk, but it can hold a lot more data (up to 100 megabytes). Zip disks can only be read by a special drive called a Zip drive. Zip disk technology was invented by a company called Iomega.
Magnetic Tape

Computers can read and write data on special cartridges of magnetic tape. A magnetic tape cartridge looks like a music cassette, but it can hold more data. Computer tape cartridges can only be read by a special tape drive. They are often used to make a safe copy of Number the devices from 1 to 4 to important data that a company or show their capacity from the biggest user doesnt want to lose. to the smallest.

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Zip disk CD-ROM Floppy disk 1 Hard disk

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Put a tick ( ) to show if the devices are portable or fixed.

Write the properties of each device in your computer.

DEVICE
Hard disk Floppy disk RAM Zip disk CD-ROM

PORTABLE

FIXED

MY COMPUTER DEVICE PROPERTIES

Mainboard (type) Ports (number and type) CPU (type and speed) RAM (size in megabytes) 256 MB Sound card (type)

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Match the words to compare computers and humans.

COMPUTERS
1. CPU 2. Speaker 3. Camera 4. Microphone 5. Chassis

HUMANS
a. Eye b. Ear c. Brain d. Mouth e. Clothes

Take a price list from a computer seller company. Imagine your dream computer, then write the properties and the price of each device. What is the total cost of your dream computer?

Solve the clues and find each word in the wordsearch puzzle. The first one has been done for you. a. Brain of the computer.

N TER TAI M EN T N

b. Temporary storage device. c. Output device that gives you a copy of your work. d. 1048 Kbytes of information. e. Another name for motherboard. f. Physical parts of the computer.

T K S I D D R A H M

E M E M O O M O R E

A H A R D W A R E G

M O N I T O R T R A

A O T S N E Y E E B

I D U C I B A R T Y

N C I S C R O M N T

M O C K E Y M A I E

W P K E Y B O A R D

U I S S E C O R P D

g. 8 bits of information. h. The most used output device. i. j. Input device for typing. The fastest permanent storage.

E
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Types of Software
Computer software gives instructions that make hardware work. The three main types of software are operating systems (system software), application programs (application software), and programming languages (programming software). An operating system controls the workings of the computer and applications. MS-DOS, Windows XP, and Linux are examples of operating systems. An application program is a program designed to help with a specific task, such as word processing, accounting, counting the items in a shop or warehouse, or maintaining a database. Application software makes a computer work to suit your needs. A programming language is used to make application programs. Basic, Pascal, Java, and Cobol are some examples of programming languages.

Operating Systems
An operating system is a piece of software that controls how hardware resources such as memory, the central processing unit (CPU), disk space, and other devices are used. Applicaitions need the operating system because they need to use these hardware resources. An operating system has two parts, a kernel, and a shell. The kernel is the core of an operating system. It manages memory, files, and other devices, maintains the time and date, starts applications, and manages system resources. The shell provides direct communication between the user and the kernel. It is an interface between the user and the kernel. There are many different types of operating system. We can classify systems according to the type of user interface, how many users they support (single-user or multi-user), how they perform tasks (single task or multitask), and how they work with other computers (single computer or network). The user interface is the part of the operating system that you use to enter commands and data. There are two types of user interface, graphical user interface (GUI) and command-line interface (CLI). A graphical user interface is a visual computer environment that represents programs, files, and options with images such as icons, menus, and dialog boxes on the screen. You can select and activate these options by pointing and clicking with a mouse, or by using the keyboard. A command-line interface does not use images or graphical menus. Instead, you type commands with the keyboard, using a special command language. Systems with command-line interfaces often seem more difficult to learn and use than systems with graphical interfaces. A single-user operating system can be used only by a single user. A multi-user operating system can be used by more than one user. In some ways, a computer that several people share is like a multi-user system. However, a real multi-user system means a machine (and operating system)

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that several people can access at the same time, through communication facilities or network terminals. A network operating system is an operating system which is specifically designed to support computer networks. A computer network is a set of computers that can communicate with each other and share sources. A network operating system uses a special machine called a server to provide networking support for multiple simultaneous users as well as administrative, security, and management functions. Unlike a single-user operating system, a network operating system must respond to requests from many computers, managing things such as network access and communications, resource use and sharing, data protection, and error control. Single-task operating systems can work only on a single task at a time. Multitask operating systems can work on multiple tasks at the same time. Multitasking systems can be either cooperative or pre-emptive. In a cooperative multitasking system, the operating system waits for one task to voluntarily give control to another task. In a pre-emptive multitasking system, the operating system decides which task receives priority.
MS-DOS D

MS-DOS is short for Microsoft Disk Operating System. MS-DOS is singletask, single-user operating system with a command-line interface, which was released in 1981 for IBM PCs and similar PCs (called IBM compatible PCs). MS-DOS, like other operating systems, controls operations such as disk input and output, video support, keyboard control, and many internal functions related to running programs and maintaining files. MS-DOS is still available on PCs that use Microsoft software, although today many people prefer to use the Microsoft Windows operating system.
PC-DOS D

PC-DOS is short for Personal Computer Disk Operating System. PC-DOS is the version of MS-DOS sold by IBM. MS-DOS and PC-DOS are almost the same, although the file names of some utility programs are different.
Microsoft Windows 9x and Windows Me

Microsoft Windows was one of the first graphical operating systems for home and office PCs. In the begining, the early versions of Windows (now called Windows 3.x) were just a graphical interface to MS-DOS. In 1995, Microsoft completely redesigned the Windows operating system so that it was more advenced and faster, and ran almost independently of MS-DOS. The important releases of this new family of Windows systems are Windows 95 and Windows 98 (together called Windows 9x), and Windows Me. Windows 95 is an operating system with a graphical user interface for intel 80386 and higher processors. It was released by Microsoft Corporation in 1995. Windows 95 is a complete operating system, instead of a graphical interface that requires MS-DOS. It was designed to replace the old Windows

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3.x systems and MS-DOS, although it can still run MS-DOS software. Under Windows 95, filenames can be up to 255 characters long and can include dots and spaces. Windows 95 supports a special technology called Plug and Play, that makes it easier to install and configure hardware. Windows 95 can also access networks that use the Windows, Novell NetWare, and Unix operating systems. The minimum configuration for Windows 95 is Intel 80386 processor with 4 MB of RAM, but an Intel 80486 or higher processor with at least 8 MB of RAM is recommended. Internet functionality in Windows 95 is provided by Microsoft Internet Explorer. Windows 98 is an operating system with a graphical user interface for i486 and higher processors. It was released by Microsoft Corporation in 1998. Windows 98 improved Windows 95 by making the interface better and making the system more reliable. Windows 98 integrates Internet connectivity more closely through an interface called Active Desktop, which includes Internet Explorer and allows users to access files on other computers in a user-friendly way. Windows 98 supports AGP ports, television tuner cards, DVD-ROM drives, multiple modems, and multiple monitors. Windows Me (Millenium Edition) is another graphical operating system from Microsoft, which was released in September 2000. Windows Me was developed specifically for home users. Microsoft claims that Windows Me combines a more user-friendly interface for new users with added functionality for experienced users. Windows Me works with the same applications and hardware as Windows 98. However, it improves Windows 98 by providing functions to reduce and correct errors in the system or hardware problems (what Microsoft is calling PC health). It also has improred features designed for digital media, home networking, and the internet.
Mac OS

Mac OS is short for Macintosh Operating System. It is the commercial name of the Apple Macintosh operating system, which began with version 7.5 in September 1994, when Apple started licensing software to other computer manufacturers. Macintosh is a popular series of personal computers introduced by Apple in 1984. The Macintosh was one of the earliest personal computers to incorporate a graphical user interface, and the first computer to use 3.5-inch floppy disks. It was also the first computer to use the 32-bit Motorola 68000 microprocessor. Although the Macintosh was very user-friendly, it sold less than normal PCs during the 1990s. However, it is still often used for desktop publishing and graphics-related applications. In 1998, both Apple and Macintosh received a lot of publicity with the release of the iMac home computer. The Macintosh operating system has had different names: Finder, System 6, System 7, System 9, Mac OS, and Mac OS X.

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OS/2

OS/2 is short for Operating System 2. It is a multitasking operating system for personal computers which use on the Intel 80286, 80386, 80486, and Pentium processors. It was developed by Microsoft and IBM, but today it is an IBM product. OS/2 can run most DOS applications and can read all MS-DOS disks. The OS/2 graphical user interface is called Presentation Manager. The latest version of OS/2, which is called OS/2 Warp 4, provides networking, Internet, and Java support, as well as speech recognition technology.
UNIX

Unix is a multi-user, multitasking operating system. It was originally developed by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie at AT&T Bell Laboratories between 1969 and 1973 for use on minicomputers. Unix has evolved into a complex, powerful operating system that is more portable and less machinespecific than many other operating systems. Unix uses a powerful command-line interface, although there are also graphical user interfaces for the Unix system. There are many different versions of Unix, including System V (developed by AT&T for commercial release), BSD Unix (a free version of Unix which was developed at the University of California Berkeley), AIX (a version of System V which was adapted by IBM), A/UX (a graphical version of Unix for the Macintosh), Linux (a newer of Unix version that runs easily on home computers), and SunOS (based on BSD Unix and available on Sun workstations). Many versions of Unix are available for free. For some versions, the program code is also free, which means that software developers can help to improve and adapt the system. Unix is often used as a network operating system, especially for networks that use the Internet.
Novell NetWare

Novell Netware is a family of LAN (local area network) operating system products developed by Novell, Inc. Novell NetWare runs on PCs and Apple Macintosh computers, and allows users to share files and system resources such as hard disks and printers.
Linux

Linux is a version of Unix System V which was developed for PCs with Intel 80386 and higher-level microprocessors. Linux was first developed by Linus Torvalds, who gave the system its name, as well as many other software developers worldwide. Linux is free and its program code can be changed by anyone who chooses to work on it, although some companies distribute it as part of a commercial package with Linux-compatible utilities.

The Linux Operating System

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The Linux kernel works with a set of free Unix system utilities. Like Unix, Linux has a powerful command-line interface with some graphical user interface support. Linux is used as an operating system for network servers and has recently started to receive support from major companies such as IBM and Compaq.
Windows NT

The Windows NT operating system, sometimes just called NT, was released by Microsoft corporation in 1993. It is a completely self-contained operating system with a built-in graphical user interface. Windows NT is a pre-emptive multitasking operating system that has powerful networking, processing, and security features. It was designed specifically for office and business PCs and networks. Windows NT can run on a variety of hardware platforms including platforms based on the Intel 80386, i486, Pentium, and MIPS microprocessors. It can also run on multiprocessor computers.
Windows 2000

Windows 2000 is a set of desktop operating systems and network servers which was announced by Microsoft in 1998. It was designed to replace Windows NT. Windows 2000 is built upon the NT kernel and uses an interface that is similar to the interface in Windows NT and Windows 9x. The Windows 2000 product line includes Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server.
Windows XP

Windows XP is the latest version of the Windows PC operating system. Some people say that Windows XP is the most important version of Windows since Windows 95. Windows XP is built on the Windows 2000 kernel but has a new, more personalized graphical interface that makes it even easier to work with graphics and the Internet, and transfer files to other devices. Windows XP also allows different people to use their own system settings and files on the same computer. Windows XP is an important Windows release because it is designed for both home PCs and office machines. In the past, Microsoft developed Windows 9x and Windows Me for home PCs, and Winows NT and Windows 2000 for offices. Windows XP combines these systems in two

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versions, Windows XP Home version and Windows XP Professional version. The only difference between these versions is that the Professional version incorporates some features for the business world such as better support for uses that use more than one machine, and better security.

BeOS

The BeOs graphical operating system was developed by Be, Inc. It was designed as a media OS, that could support the large file sizes and high-performance processing demands of digital media and the Internet. BeOs can run on systems with two or more processors. Like many other operating systems, BeOS support pre-emptive multitasking, virtual memory, and memory protection. It also provides high-performance input/output capabilities, a file system that can support terabyte-sized files, and Internet features such as built-in e-mail and web services.

Application Programs
Word Processor

Put a tick ( ) to show if the operating systems have a graphical or command-line interface. Sometimes a system has both.
OPERATING SYSTEM GRAPHICAL COMMAND USER LINE INTERFACE INTERFACE

A word processor is an application program for creating and manipulating text documents. A word processor is like an electronic paper, pen, typewriter, eraser, and, even a dictionary. Advances and developments in word processing applications mean that you can now see a document on screen that is the same as the same as the document that will be printed, with any colors, graphics, and text styles. All word processors allow you to change text styles (called fonts), page size, and text spacing, etc. Some word processors can also check spelling, find synonyms,

MS-DOS WINDOWS 9X WINDOWS NT WINDOWS 2000 WINDOWS XP UNIX LINUX MAC OSx BEOS PC-DOS OS/2

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incorporate graphics created with another program, write math formulas, create and print letters, perform calculations, display documents in different ways, and allow you to record special programs (called macros) that perform complicated operations automatically. Some popular word processors are Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect, StarWriter, Windows WordPad, MacWrite, and WordStar.
Put ticks (3) in the columns to compare a typewriter with a word processor.

ACTION
You can correct your mistakes. You can work without electricity. You can save and reuse your work. You can make a few copies. You can make many copies. You can modify your work. You can add pictures.

TYPEWRITER

WORD PROCESSOR

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You can choose the font type and font size. You can use any color. After you finish typing, you can change the paper size. You can make the font italic, bold or underlined. You can draw. You can make charts. You can check your spelling and find synonyms.

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Spreadsheet

A spreadsheet application helps you to organize text and numeric data and perform calculations. Spreadsheet programs organize data in cells, like the cells in a table. Some cells contain formulas, such as the sum of all the numbers in one column of cells. If you change a number in the column, the value of the sum changes automatically. Spreadsheet programs usually also you to make and design graphs of data, and change the style (format) of text and numbers. Spreadsheet programs are very useful in offices for accounting, and for making financial plans and reports. Some popular spreadsheet programs are Microsoft Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, StarCalc, and Corel Quattro Pro.

Presentation Software

Presentation software applications (sometimes called presentation graphics applications) help you to create sequences of words and pictures that tell a story, or support a speech or a public presentation of information. There are two main types of presentation software, business presentation software, and general multimedia presentation software. Multimedia authoring software allows you to create more sophisticated presentations that include audio and video sequences. Business presentation software allows you to create simpler presentations, which can include images and sometimes audio and video developed with other tools. Some popular presentation software, applications are Microsoft PowerPoint, Lotus Freelance Graphics, Adobe Persuasion, Astound Presentation, Asymetrix Compel, Corel Presentations, and Harvard Graphics.
Database Prepare a presentation and present it to your friends.

A database is a set of collections of data, for example, a set of information about the students in a class, with their name, age, and grades. A database program allows you to manage a database. It has four main parts: tables where the data is kept, forms that you use to enter data into the database, a way to search (query) the data, and a way to make reports that show the contents of the database. Some popular database programs are dBase, Paradox, Microsoft Access, FoxPro, Oracle, SQL Server, InterBase, and Sybase.
CAD/CAM

CAD/CAM is short for computer-aided design/computeraided manufacturing. CAD/CAM applications help people to design and manifacture products using computer-generated models. CAD/CAM is useful for engineers, scientists, and architects, who can develop models of tools, molecules, aircraft, integrated circuits, robots, or even buildings using a computer. CAD/CAM applications create objects in two or three dimensions, and show the results either as wire-frame skeletons, as models with shaded surfaces, or as solid

A
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objects. Some programs can also rotate or resize models, show interior views, generate lists of the materials needed for construction, and perform other related tasks. CAD/CAM programs use a lot of math, so they often need the computing power of a high-performance workstation. The finished design is translated into a set of instructions that can be used by machines for manufacture, assembly, and process control. Some popular CAD/CAM programs are AutoCAD, Orcid, and Electronic WorkBench.
Painting

A paint program is an application program that creates graphics as a set of dots called a bit map. Paint programs are particularly useful for freehand drawing, for example, drawing using a mouse or light pen. Paint programs usually include tools to create lines, curves, and geometric shapes, which become part of the whole graphic. Some common paint programs are Windows Paint, Corel Painter, and Adobe Photoshop.
Drawing

A drawing program allows you to create object oriented graphics instead of bitmaps. In an object-oriented graphic, you can move a part of the graphic, such as a line, a circle, or a block of text, as an independent object simply by selecting the object and moving it. Object-oriented graphics are created by combinations of lines, curves, circles, and squares. Some popular drawing programs are CorelDRAW, and Macromedia FreeHand.
Page Layout and Publishing

Many people use computers to create text and graphics documents for printing on a laser printer or a typesetting machine. This is called desktop publishing. The desktop publishing process involves different types of software and equipment. The original text and illustrations are usually produced with software such as word processors and drawing and painting programs, and with scanners. After this, the text and images are transferred to a page layout application. A page layout application allows you to organize text and graphics on the screen and see what the results will be. Page layout applications usually include word processing and graphics utilities so that you can make any necessary changes to the document. Finally, the finished document is printed

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either on a laser printer or, for the best quality, by typesetting equipment. Some popular page layout applications are Quark XPress, Adobe InDesign, and Microsoft Publisher.
The Internet

The Internet is a worldwide network that connects thousands of commercial, government, educational, and other computer networks, and allows users to share data and messages. No single computer controls the Internet which means that the Internet is very powerful. Even if part of the Internet network stops working, computers can use other parts of the Internet to send their information. Some popular types of Internet application are browsers used to see web pages (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, and Mozilla) chat programs (ICQ, mIRC, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger), web design programs (Microsoft FrontPage, Macromedia Dreamweaver), file transfer programs (Cute-FTP), email programs (Microsoft Outlook Express, and Eudora), and download programs (GetRight, FlashGet, Go!zilla, and Download Accelerator).

Multimedia

Multimedia is the combination of sound, graphics, animation, and video. Multimedia applications allow you to play multimedia files, such as music and movies, on your computer. Multimedia applications usually require a CD-ROM drive and writer, a sound card, a speaker, microphone. Multimedia files, are very large, so they are usually recorded on CD-ROMs. Some popular multimedia programs are Microsoft Media Player, WinAmp, WinDVD, and ACDSee.

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Utilities

A utility program is designed to perform maintenance work on your computer or on computer components, or to help you with common tasks. For example, there are utility programs to help you copy files and data to safe storage (called backing up data), retrieve (recover) lost or damaged data, make files smaller (called compressing files), and show and change the settings for your computers resources. Some popular utility programs are Norton Utilities, PC Tools, Norton Commander, Windows Commander, Partition Magic, Norton Ghost, Stacker, DriveSpace, WinZip, WinRar, PkZip, WinAce, Arj, and Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Antivirus Software

A virus is a program that infects computer files by copying itself into files as they are loaded into memory. Viruses can spread very fast through a whole computer, or through diskette and Internet files that people copy from one machine to another. Viruses often damage computers. For example, some viruses can destroy a computers hard disk, or take up memory space that could be used by other programs. Some well-known viruses are Dark Avenger, Jerusalem, Crazy Boot, Soned, Yale, Cascade, One Half, Yankee, Brain, Disk Killer, Melissa, Nimda, Chernobil, and ILoveYou. An antivirus program searches (scans) your computers memory and hard disks to identify, and destroy viruses. It also examines files for viruses as your computer receives them. Some common antivirus programs are Scan & Clean, Norton AntiVirus, Toolkit, McAfee, RAV, Trend PC-cillin, Kaspersky, Panda, and F-Prot.
Games

Games allow you to interact with your computer as a form of entertainment. There are hundreds of different types of computer game, from simple alphabet games for young children, to chess, treasure hunts, war games, and simulations of world events. You can play games with a keyboard or with a joystick or other device. Games are and are supplied on floppy disks, on CD-ROMs, on game cartridges, or even on the Internet. Some popular and famous games are Chess Master, Age Of Empires, SimCity, Fifa 2002, and Quake.

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Programming Languages

Write the names of the software on your computer.

Programming is the art and science of SOFTWARE NAME creating computer programs. Computer Operating system Windows XP programs are written using a special language called a programming language Word processor that a computer or programming application Spreadsheet can understand. The writing process is called Presentation software coding, and the result is called program Database code. However, to write a program, you need to know more than just a programming CAD/CAM language. Computer programers need to Painting know how to put instructions in a logical Drawing order (called an algoritm), and about different types of interface, hardware, and Page layout operating system. They need to be able Internet to think logically, like a computer. Multimedia Computer programs can be very large Utilities and complicated, so often programmers work on one small part of Antivirus a bigger program. They write and test Games this small part (called a module) before they add it to the main code. A programming language is any Ask ten people about the programs they use. Find the most popular artificial language that can be used to write three programs in each category and write them in the table. instructions for a computer. Usually programming languages need special FIRST SECOND THIRD SOFTWARE programs, called compilers, that translate Operating system the instructions into special code that the Word processor CPU and the hardware can process. This Spreadsheet translation process is called compilation. English and other natural languages are Software too complicated for computers to Database understand, although some subsets of CAD/CAM English are used and understood by some Painting advanced programming languages. There are two types of programming language, Drawing low-level languages and high-level Page layout languages. Internet browser A low-level l language is a Utilities programming language that is written Antivirus for a particular set of hardware and processor, or that uses few control Games instructions and data types. Each statement in a program written in a lowlevel language usually corresponds to one machine instruction. There is only one low-level language, called assembly

U R VEY

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language. A high-level language is a computer language that is more abstract than l machine language. Statements in a high-level language usually use words similar to English, and correspond to more than one machine language instruction. In practice, every computer language above assembly language is a high-level language. Some common high-level languages are Basic, Pascal, Java, Cobol, and Paradox. A programming language can be a general-purpose language or a specialpurpose language. General-purpose programming languages, such as Ada, Basic, C, or Pascal, are designed for a variety of applications and uses. Specialpurpose languages are designed for a specific type of need or application. For example, SQL is a special-purpose language which is designed to be used only with databases. Visual programming is a method of programming using a visual (graphical) programming environment. In visual programming, programmers choose basic program components with menu choices, buttons, icons, and special tools. The following assembly program displays Hello World. push dword len push dword msg push dword 1 mov eax,0x4 call _syscall add esp,12 push dword 0 mov eax,0x1 call _syscall _syscall: int 0x80 ret msg db Hello World,0xa len equ $-msg
Basic Assembly

Assembly language is a lowlevel programming language that uses abbreviations and codes to represent machine instructions. Each statement corresponds to a single machine instruction. An assembly language is translated to machine language by a program called an assembler and is specific to a particular processor. Although assembly language is diffucult to learn, assembly programs run faster and allow programmers to control hardware directly.

Basic is an acronym for Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. It is a high-level programming language which was developed in the mid1960s by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz at Dartmouth College. Many people think that Basic is one of the easiest programming languages to learn because instructions in Basic The following Basic program displays Hello World. are easy to read, and PRINT Hello World similar to English.

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Fortran

Fortran is an acronym for formula The following Fortran program displays Hello World. translation. Fortran was the first highPROGRAM HelloWorld level computer language. It was PRINT *, Hello World developed between 1954 and 1958 by John Backus, an engineer at IBM. Fortran END PROGRAM HelloWorld introduced important high-level programming concepts such as variables, expressions, statements, and formatted input/output. Fortran was originally used in science and enginearing, but it has expanded and developed over time to become a useful language for many different purposes.
Pascal

Pascal was developed between 1967 and 1971 by Niklaus Wirth. It was originally created to help people learn to program a computer. Pascal is a good general-purpose programming language that used to be popular, although The following Pascal program displays Hello World. now programmers PROGRAM HelloWorld; usually prefer C or BEGIN C++. WRITELN(Hello World); END.

The C programming language was developed by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Laboratories in 1972. It is called C because evolved from an earlier language called B. Although many people think that C is more like an assembly language instead of a high-level language, it has become very popular in office programming. This is mostly because it is closely associated to Unix, a popular industry operating system, and because it was standardized by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). C is a compiled language that contains a small set of functions that are machine-specific. The rest of the C functions are common to all machines and can be accessed from all C programs. C programs are composed of one or more functions defined by the programmer, which means that instead of The following C program displays Hello World. running from begining to end, a program jumps to different functions. For this reason, C #include <stdio.h> is called a structured programming language. main() { printf(Hello World\n); }

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The following C++ program displays Hello World.

C++

C++ is an object-orriented programming #include <iostream.h> language object-orriented programming void main() means that the different parts of a program are { like objects that can be created, destroyed, or cout << Hello World << endl; changed, and that can interact with each other. } Object-oriented programming is very powerful because objects can be shared and used again in different applications. Non object-oriented programming is like building a car from the very beginning, from metal and bolts. Object-oriented programming is like using existing parts, such as an engine, the wheels, the body, etc. to build the car. C++ was developed as an object-oriented version of C by Bjarne Stroustrup in the early 1980s at Bell Laboratories. It is supported by computer companies such as Apple and Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Java

Java is a high-level language that was developed by Sun Microsystems. It is an object-oriented language like C++, but it is simpler than C++, so that many common errors can be avoided. Java code is compiled into code that can be run by a special program called a The following Java program displays Hello World. Java interpreter. Since Java import java.applet.*; interpreters, called Virtual Machines, exist in most operating systems, Java import java.awt.*; code can be run on computers with public class HelloWorld extends Applet { different operating systems. public void paint(Graphics g) { Java is popular for many general g.drawString(Hello World,10,10); purpose applications, although it is } especially suitable for Internet } applications.
ASP (Active Server Pages)

ASP is a special technology developed by Microsoft that allows programmers to add special features to web pages. Active Server Pages are like normal web pages, but they include special commands (called script commands). When an Internet user asks a server machine for an Active Server Page, the server machine carries out the script commands and sends the result to the user. Because the command processing is done on the server machine, web programmers can write programs without worrying about which operating system or hardware and software an Internet user is running on their own machine. Active Server Page filesnames end in .asp. ASP is becoming quite common on the Internet.

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COBOL

COBOL is an acronym for Common Business-Oriented Language. COBOL was developed between 1959 and 1961 and is still used today in business applications on mainframe computers. Program instructions in COBOL look a bit like English sentences, which means that COBOL is quite easy to understand. A COBOL program consists of an Identification Division, which specifies the name of the program and contains any other documentation the programmer wants to add; an Environment Division, which specifies the computer(s) being used and the files used in the program for input and output; a Data Division, which describes the format of the data structures used in the program; and a Procedure Division, which contains the procedures that the program uses.
Visual Basic Put a tick ( ) in the right column for each piece of software.

Visual Basic is a high-level, visual programming version of Basic. It was designed by Microsoft Corporation for building Windows-based applications.
Delphi

SOFTWARE
MS-DOS Microsoft Word Microsoft Windows Unix ACDSee Microsoft Excel Adobe Acrobat Reader Corel WordPerfect Windows Paint Winzip Norton AntiVirus Norton Commander Borland Delphi CorelDRAW

OPERATING APPLICATION PROGRAMMING SYSTEM SOFTWARE LANGUAGE

Delphi is a graphical version of Pascal, and was developed by Borland Inc. Delphi was especially designed for building Windows-based applications.
Visual C++

C TI TY VI

Visual C++ is a high-level, visual programming version of C++. It was developed by Microsoft Corporation.

C++ WinAmp Adobe Photoshop Internet Explorer AutoCAD Microsoft FoxPro

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51

Discuss with your friends the necessity of copyright for computer software and write down the conclusions.

What kind of software do you use for each task? Write examples to complete the table.

TASK
Writing a letter Drawing a picture Copying files Listening to music Calculating the average of your marks Preparing an address book Sending an e-mail Playing a game Surfing the Internet Finding and destroying viruses Preparing a newspaper Writing a chess game Watching a movie Compressing a file

SOFTWARE TYPE
Word processor

NAME
Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect

Find the names of 19 programs in the wordsearch. Write them in the table with their type. The first one has been done for you. L A O U M E E R T L O O I A T K L H A P S L O PROGRAM NAME Outlook PROGRAM TYPE e-mail

A
I L O A L I S M A N J D I W N P M E B X I D E B L A T A E O I S L H L A X D R F N L C C S R C O U M I O C E W I N D O W T U S T L O 1 2 3 K C U A R A H M P A N D A A U M S C O R E L D R A W A

C TI TY VI

EBATE

L T C E F R E P D R O W W Z R P A M E

L T R I N P I O I

U U A

S X P N I H T

I L N R U E K U U Q I L

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

E
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N TER TAI M EN T N

SOFTWARE

What Is DOS?
DOS is short for Disk Operating System, in other words, a system that operates and controls the disks (such as hard disks, floppy disks, and CD-ROM disks) on your computer. In fact, DOS does more than just operate the disks: It also allows you to organize data files, load and execute (run) program files, and control the input and output devices attached to your computer. DOS uses a command-line interface to receive instructions and display results. In Microsoft Windows, users click on graphics and choose commands in a menu. Example of a DOS Screen In DOS, you type commands with the keyboard. In some ways, DOS is less user-friendly than Windows, although learning DOS is a good way to understand how some parts of your computer work.

How to Run DOS

DOS is the first main program that runs when your computer is switched on. When you switch your computer on, the computer loads DOS into RAM. If you use Windows on your computer, Windows usually starts automatically after the main DOS commands have been processed. You can access DOS from Windows by choosing the MS-DOS Command Prompt from the Start>Programs>Accessories menu.

Basic Concepts
Program: A program is a sequence of instructions that can be executed (processed) by a computer. Some DOS programs are called TSR programs, short for Terminate and Stay Resident programs. A TSR program stays in memory even when it is not running, so that it can be started quickly even if another task is running. TSR programs are used with operating systems that are not multitasking, such as DOS. User: A user is a person who uses computer programs.

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File: A file is the basic unit of information storage on a computer. A file could be a program, a set of data used by a program, or a document that you create. Filename: A filename is the name that you give to a file to distinguish it from all other files in a particular directory on a disk. Choose filenames carefully, as a good name will help you to remember what kind of information is in the file. A filename in DOS can contain up to eight characters, which can be numbers, letters, or certain symbols. For example, PDL, README, 4JULY96, and MEMO_MAY are valid filenames. You cannot use the / \ [ ] < > + = ; : , ? * { } or space characters in a filename. Extension: A file extension is a set of three characters that is added at the end of a filename, after a period (.). A file extension identifies the file type or family. It can be chosen by the user or by a program. For example, DOS uses .com or .exe for programs that DOS can load and run. An extension can contain the same letters, numbers and symbols that are allowed for file names. File attribute: DOS uses file attributes to define special file types, for example, a hidden file (for a file that the user shouldnt see), a system file (for a file that is used by the operating system), or a read-only file (for a file that the user cant the normally change). The file attribute is stored as part of the file. Disk: A disk is any of the disks connected to your computer, for example, your hard disk, a CD-ROM, or a floppy disk. Disk drive: A disk drive reads and copies information on a disk. There are three main types of disk drive: floppy disk drives, hard disk drives, and CDROM drives. Floppy disk drives are designed to accept removable disks. Hard disk drives are faster, high-capacity storage units that are completely enclosed in a protective case. CD-ROM drives are faster than floppy disk drives and slower than hard disk drives. DOS operates different drives and transfers data (files or directories) between them. In DOS, every drive has a letter. The letter for the first hard disk drive is usually C. The letter for the floppy disk drive is A. Partition: A partition is a section of a hard disk that functions like a separate disk. Usually, uses drive C for DOS a single partition disk. A and B are usually used for floppy disk drives. A two-partition hard drive usually contains C and D drives. FAT (File Allocation Table): A FAT is a table or list maintained by some operating systems to manage the disk space which is used for file storage. When a file is stored on a disk, it is stored in separate pieces instead of one large block. The FAT keeps track of all these pieces. Current drive: In DOS, you can move around between the different drives on your computer. The current drive is the drive where you are working.

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55

Directory: A directory is a catalog for the files and other directories on a disk. A directory is a way of organizing and grouping files in a logical way. Directories are organized like the branches of a tree. One directory (branch) can have other directories (branches) below it. Root directory: The top directory of a drive is called the root directory. Current directory: In DOS, you can move around the different directories in your computer. The current directory is the directory where you are working. When you try to run a program in DOS, DOS searches the current directory first for the right program file. Subdirectory: A subdirectory is a directory under (or below) the current directory in the tree structure. Parent directory: A parent directory is the directory above the current directory in the tree structure. Path: A path is the exact location of a file on your computer. The path name tells the computer where to find a file in the directory tree. Version: A version is a particular issue or release of a hardware or software product. MS-DOS 1.0 was released as the first version of MS-DOS in August 1981. The latest version, MS-DOS 6.22, was released in April 1994. Command: A command is an instruction to a computer program to perform a certain action. In DOS, you type commands using the keyboard. Command prompt: The command prompt shows you where to enter DOS commands. The default DOS prompt is the current directory path followed by a greater-than sign (for example, C:\>). To execute a command in DOS, type the command (for example, DIR) at the command prompt and press ENTER. You can type the command in either uppercase or lowercase letters. If you make a typing mistake, press the BACKSPACE key to erase the mistake, and then try again.

C:\>DIR

Displays a list of files and subdirectories in a directory.

Parameter: A parameter is a letter typed after a command, that tells the

command to perform an extra task, or perform a task in a special way. C:\>DIR /P Displays a list of files and subdirectories in a directory, and pauses after each screenful of information.

Wildcard: A wildcard is a special character that you can use to represent one or many characters. DOS uses two wildcard characters, the asterisk (*) and the question mark (?). The asterisk represents one or more characters, and the question mark (?) represents a single character. Wildcards are useful when you want to perform an operation on more than one file, or when you cant remember the exact name of a file.

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Cursor: The cursor is the special on-screen marker (usually a flashing underline) that marks the place where the text that you type will appear. ASCII: ASCII is an acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. ASCII gives a special number (an ASCII code) to each different letter, numeral, punctation mark and other symbol that a computer can understand. ASCII was developed in 1968 to standardize data transmission among different types of hardware and software. It is used by most minicomputers and all PCs. ASCII is divided into two sets: 128 characters (standard ASCII) and another 128 characters (extended ASCII). Driver: A driver is a hardware device or a program that controls another device. A driver allows a computer to work with a particular device, such as a printer or a disk drive.

Internal and External Commands

DOS Internal Commands

There are two types of DEL (ERASE) PAUSE TYPE command in DOS, internal BREAK commands and external CALL DIR PROMPT VER commands. CHCP ECHO REM VERIFY Internal commands are built EXIT REN VOL into the operating system as CHDIR GOTO RMDIR (RD) part of a file called CLS COMMAND.COM. Internal COPY IF SET commands are loaded into MKDIR (MD) SHIFT memory whenever you switch CTTY on your computer. When you DATE PATH TIME type an internal command, DOS performs it immediately. The table shows a list of internal DOS commands. Some commands (like MKDIR) have two forms. The second form is shown in brackets. Files with a COM or EXE extension contain external commands. Because these commands are files, they are not built into the operating system and so the command names sometimes change between different versions of DOS. DOS External Commands The table opposite shows a list EDLIN KEYB SCANDSK of common external DOS APPEND commands. ASSIGN EXE2BIN KEYBXX SETVER When you type an external ATTRIB FASTOPEN LABEL SHARE command, DOS looks for the BACKUP FC MODE SORT command in the current FDISK MORE SUBST directory. If it is not there, it CHKDSK FIND NLSFUNC SYS looks for the command in the COMMAND root directory. If it is not there, COMP FORMAT PRINT TREE then you must guide DOS to DELTREE GRAPTABL RECOVER XCOPY the relevant directory with the DISKCOMP GRAPHICS REPLACE PATH command. DISKCOPY JOIN RESTORE

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57

Working with Disks

PARTITIONING A DISK
A partition is a physical section of a disk such as a hard disk. A hard disk with two partitions works like two separate hard disks. This is useful if you want to run two different file systems. Most personal computers today are sold with the drive already partitioned and loaded with the operating system. However, you can create your own disk partition with the DOS command FDISK. Before you run FDISK, make sure that your disk has been low-level formatted. An example of how to use FDISK is shown below. Type FDISK to start, then follow the steps.

EXAMPLE
A:\>FDISK

NOTE
Be very careful when you use FDISK. If you make a mistake, you might damage your hard disk.

Suppose you have a hard disk that has 200 Mbytes capacity and you want to create two partitions: 100 MB and 100 MB.

STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3 STEP 4 STEP 5 STEP 6 STEP 7 STEP 8 STEP 9

A:\>FDISK
Choose 1 from the menu that appears and press ENTER. Choose 1. Create Primary DOS Partition. Type N and press ENTER. Enter 100 for the partition size and press ENTER. The primary partition is ready. Press ESC. Choose 1. Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive and press ENTER. Choose 2. Create Extended DOS Partition. The rest of the hard disk must be selected as Extended DOS Partition. Press ENTER.

STEP 10 Press ESC. STEP 11 All the Extended DOS Partition must be assigned as Logical DOS Drive. Press ENTER. STEP 12 Press ESC. STEP 13 Choose 4. Display Partition Information. STEP 14 Press ESC. STEP 15 computer start from the hard disk.
Choose 2. Set Active Partition. One of the partitions must be active to make the

R AC TI E C

STEP 16 Choose 1 to make C the active partition. STEP 17 The active partition is ready. Press ESC. STEP 18 Press ESC to exit FDISK.

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MS-DOS

FORMATTING A DISK
After a disk has been physically formatted and perhaps partitioned, it must also be logically formatted. Logical formatting puts a file system on the disk. A file system allows an operating system to use the available disk space to store and retrieve files. When you format a disk that contains data, the data is lost. Operating systems use different file systems, so the type of logical formatting that you use depends on the operating system you are going to use. DOS uses the FAT file system. All file systems use structures such as files and directories, which are necessary for storing and managing data. A file system also performs three main functions: a. Managing the space on the disk. b. Maintaining directories and file names. c. Tracking where each file is physically stored on the disk. Some of the most common file systems are: FAT (File Allocation System), FAT32 (File Allocation System 32), NTFS (New Technology File System), HPFS (High Performance File System), Novell NetWare File System, Linux Ext2, and Linux Swap.

EXAMPLE
C:\>FORMAT A: C:\>FORMAT A: /s A:\FORMAT C: /q A:\FORMAT A: /u Formats your floppy disk. Formats your floppy disk as a system disk. A system disk contains special files that you can use to start up (boot) your computer. Performs a quick format of the hard disk. Performs an unconditional format of your floppy disk, i.e., a format which ignores bad (damaged) sectors.

You have a floppy disk and you want to use it as a system disk.

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FIRST WAY
C:\>FORMAT A: /S

SECOND WAY
(If the diskette is unformatted.)

C:\>FORMAT C:\>SYS A:

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59

CHANGING THE CURRENT DRIVE

The first character of the command prompt shows the current drive usually A or C. If you start (boot) your computer from a floppy disk, the command prompt will start as A:\>. If you boot your computer from a hard disk, the prompt will be C:\>. To change to a different drive, type the drive letter followed by a colon and press ENTER. Changes the current drive from A to C.

EXAMPLE
A:\> C:

NAMING A DISK
Use the LABEL command to create a name for a disk or diskette. This name is also called the volume label. You can also use the LABEL command to change or delete the current volume label. A volume label can be up to 11 characters long, and must not include spaces or TAB characters. Use the underscore(_), or the minus sign(-), to create a break between words.

EXAMPLE
C:\>LABEL A: My_Diskette Gives the name My_Diskette to the floppy disk in drive A. C:\>LABEL C: Deletes the label of the disk in drive C. A:\>LABEL Deletes the label of the disk in the current drive (drive A).

COPYING A FLOPPY DISK

Use the DISKCOPY command to make a copy of the contents of a floppy disk onto another floppy disk. DISKCOPY only works if both diskettes are exactly the same type. The diskette you are copying from is called the source diskette. The diskette you are copying to is called the target diskette. You dont need to format the target diskette - DISKCOPY does it for you. DISKCOPY deletes any information you already had on the target diskette. EXAMPLE C:\>DISKCOPY A: B: Copies the contents of the floppy disk in drive A to the floppy disk in drive B. Copies the contents of the floppy disk in drive A to a different disk in drive A. A:\>DISKCOPY A: A: DOS will ask you to insert the source disk and then the target disk.

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MS-DOS

DISPLAYING A DISKS VOLUME LABEL EXAMPLE

D:\>VOL A:\>VOL C: Use the VOL command to display a disks volume label and serial number, if they exist. Displays the volume label and serial number of the disk in the current drive. Displays the volume label and serial number of the disk in drive C (the hard disk).

COMPARING TWO FLOPPY DISKS

Use the DISKCOMP command to check if two floppy disks are exact copies of each other. Both disks must have the same capacity, i.e. 720KB or 1.44MB. DISKCOMP is usually used immediately after the DISKCOPY command to make sure that both floppy disks are the same. DISKCOMP calls to the original disk the first disk, and calls the copy the second disk.

EXAMPLE
C:\>DISKCOMP A: B: Compares the floppy disk in drive A with the floppy disk in drive B. Compares two floppy disks in drive A. DOS will ask you to insert the disks one A:\>DISKCOMP A: A: by one.

CHECKING THE CONDITION OF A DISK

Use the CHKDSK command for the following operations: Check a disk to see how much space there is available, and how much is in use. Fix disk errors, such as showing wrong file size information. Display information about the disk, including the total disk space, and the number and size of the files on the disk. Display how much Random Access Memory (RAM) is available to DOS. Run CHKDSK occasionally on all your disks to check for errors. Checks the floppy disk in drive A for errors. Checks the floppy disk in drive A and fixes any errors.

EXAMPLE
C:\>CHKDSK A: C:\>CHKDSK A: /F

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Working with Directories

VIEWING THE CONTENTS OF A DIRECTORY EXAMPLE

C:\>DIR C:\>DIR C:\>DIR C:\>DIR C:\>DIR C:\>DIR /P /W A: A:\WORKS *.EXE Use the DIR command to display a list of the files and subdirectories in a directory on the screen. Displays a list of the files and directories in the current directory. Displays a list of the files and directories in the current directory one screen at a time. Displays a list of the files and directories in the current directory in a wide list format. Displays a list of the files and directories in the root directory of drive A. Displays a list of the files and directories in the directory A:\WORKS. Displays a list of all the files with the extension EXE in the current directory. Displays a list of all the files with names begining with the letter A in the current directory. Displays a list of all the files in the current directory that have a one-letter filename with the extension DOC. Displays a list of all the files in the current directory.

D:\>DIR A*.* D:\>DIR ?.DOC A:\>DIR *.*

DISPLAYING THE STRUCTURE OF A DIRECTORY EXAMPLE

C:\>TREE C:\>TREE A: C:\>TREE D:\TEMP Use the TREE command to graphically display the directory structure of a drive or path. Displays the tree structure of the current directory. Displays the tree structure of drive A. Displays the tree structure of the D:\TEMP directory.

CHANGING THE CURRENT DIRECTORY EXAMPLE

C:\>CD USERS C:\USERS>CD D:\TEMP C:\USERS\USR_1>CD.. C:\USERS\USR_1>CD\ Use the CHDIR or CD command to change from the current directory to a different directory. Goes to the USERS directory below the current directory. Goes to the D:\TEMP directory from the current directory. Goes back to the parent directory (USERS). Goes to the root directory.

CREATING A NEW SUBDIRECTORY

Use the MKDIR or MD command to make a new subdirectory. Every disk drive has a root directory which can have subdirectories. The subdirectories can have subdirectories, and so on. Directory names can use the same characters and symbols as filenames. Directory names do not usually have an extension.

EXAMPLE

C:\>MD USERS Creates a new subdirectory called USERS below the current directory. C:\>MD \USERS\USR_1 Creates a new subdirectory called USR_1 in the USERS subdirectory.

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MS-DOS

DELETING A SUBDIRECTORY
Use the RMDIR or RD command to delete a subdirectory. You can only remove a subdirectory if it is empty (i.e., if it doesnt contain any files or subdirectories). You can only remove one subdirectory at a time. You cannot remove the root directory. You cannot remove the current directory. If you want to remove the current directory, first make sure that it is empty, then move to the parent directory and use the RMDIR or RD command to delete the directory.

EXAMPLE

C:\>RD \USERS\USR_1 Deletes the directory USR_1 in the USERS subdirectory. C:\>RD USERS Deletes the USERS subdirectory.

DELETING A DIRECTORY TREE

Use the DELTREE command to delete a directory with all its subdirectories and files. EXAMPLE C:\>DELTREE USERS Deletes the USERS directory and its contents.

COPYING A DIRECTORY TREE

Use the XCOPY command to copy all the files in a directory.

EXAMPLE
A:\>XCOPY TEMP C:\USERS D:\>XCOPY A:\TEMP C:\USERS Copies all the files from the TEMP directory to the C:\USERS directory.

Copies all the files from the A:\TEMP directory to the C:\USERS directory. Copies all the files and subdirectories from the USERS C:\>XCOPY USERS D:\TEMP /S subdirectory into the D:\TEMP directory. The S parameter tells DOS to copy subdirectories as well as files.

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Working with Files

CREATING A NEW FILE

Use the COPY CON command to create a text file and enter text.

EXAMPLE
C:\>COPY CON ADDRESS.TXT 87 GREEN STR LONDON ^Z Creates a text file that is called ADDRESS.TXT in the current directory. To stop data entry press CTRL+Z, or F6.

DOS also provides a text editing program called EDIT. You can create, open, edit, and print text files using EDIT. For example, type EDIT ADDRESS.TXT to create a file called ADDRESS.TXT and open it in the DOS editor.

DISPLAYING THE CONTENTS OF A FILE

Use the TYPE command to display the contents of a file on the screen. There are some files, for example, operating system commands or applications software, which you may not be able to read because they contain non-alphabetic and non-numeric characters.

EXAMPLE
C:\>TYPE AUTOEXEC.BAT C:\>TYPE COMMAND.COM | MORE C:\>EDIT A:\AUTOEXEC.BAT Displays the contents of the file AUTOEXEC.BAT which is in the current directory. Displays the contents of the file COMMAND.COM one screen at a time. Can you read it? Opens the file A:\AUTOEXEC.BAT.

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64

Create a batch file MYFILE.BAT in C:\ that performs the following operations. Test your new file by running it. a. Creates a new directory NEW in C : \ . b. Copies the contents of the directory A:\WORK to C:\NEW. c. Deletes the directory A:\WORK.

MS-DOS

COPYING FILES
Use the COPY command to copy a file or a group of files in the current directory, from one disk or directory to another.

EXAMPLE
C:\>COPY CONFIG.SYS A:\ C:\>COPY CONFIG.SYS C:\TEMP C:\>COPY CONFIG.SYS \TEMP C:\>COPY CONFIG.SYS A: A:\>COPY *.* C:\TEMP C:\TP\BIN>COPY *.EXE A:\ A:\>COPY PROG?.PAS C:\PROGS C:\>COPY OLD.TXT NEW.TXT C:\>COPY OLD.TXT A:\NEW.TXT Copies the file CONFIG.SYS to the root directory in drive A. Copies the file CONFIG.SYS to the TEMP directory in drive C. Copies the file CONFIG.SYS to the TEMP directory in drive C. Copies the file CONFIG.SYS to the last directory you came from in drive A. Copies all the files in the current directory to the TEMP directory in drive C. Copies all the executable files in the current directory to the root directory of A. Copies all the files whose names match the pattern to the PROGS directory in drive C. The ? wildcard can be any character. Creates a copy of the file OLD.TXT in the current directory and calls it NEW.TXT. Creates a copy of the file OLD.TXT in the current directory and copies it to the root directory in A with the name NEW.TXT.

R AC TI E C

Copy all the document files (.DOC and .TXT files) in C:\TEMP to D:\DOCS, and all the bitmap files (.BMP and .JPG files) in C:\TEMP to D:\PICTURES.

COMBINING FILES
Use the COPY command to combine two or more files in a single file. Combining files like this is called merging the files. Merges the files LIST1.TXT and LIST2.TXT in a new file, LISTS.TXT Merges the files LIST1.TXT and LIST2.TXT and puts the result in LIST1.TXT

EXAMPLE
C:\>COPY LIST1.TXT+LIST2.TXT LISTS.TXT C:\>COPY LIST1.TXT + LIST2.TXT

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65

RENAMING FILES
Use the RENAME or REN command to change the name of a file. Be careful: you cannot have two files with the same name in the same directory.

EXAMPLE
C:\>REN OLD.TXT NEW.TXT C:\>REN *.HLP *.TXT Renames the file OLD.TXT to NEW.TXT. Changes all the extensions HLP to TXT in the current directory.

DELETING FILES
Use the DEL or ERASE command to delete files that you no longer need. Deleting old files makes room for new ones. Be careful: once you delete a file, its to get it back.

EXAMPLE
C:\>DEL \TEMP\*.* A:\>DEL C:\BP\BIN\*.BAK A:\>DEL . Deletes all the files in the TEMP directory. Deletes all the backup files (files with extension BAK) in the C:\BP\BIN. Deletes all the files in the current directory.

MOVING FILES
Use the MOVE command to transfer files from one directory to another directory. The MOVE command is like COPY followed by DEL.

EXAMPLE
Moves the CONFIG.SYS file in the current directory to the root directory of A. Moves files from the root directory of A to the C:\PROGS directory C. This command only moves files with the extension A:\>MOVE PROG?.PAS C:\PROGS\ PAS, whose filenames are five characters long and begin with PROG. C:\>MOVE OLD.TXT NEW.TXT Renames the file OLD.TXT in the current directory as NEW.TXT. Moves the file OLD.TXT from the current directory to the root C:\>MOVE OLD.TXT A:\NEW.TXT directory of A, and gives the new file the name NEW.TXT. C:\>MOVE CONFIG.SYS A:\

UNDELETING DELETED FILES

Use the UNDELETE command to get back (recover) files that you have deleted by mistake. The DEL command doesnt actually delete files physically on the disk. It replaces the first character of the names of deleted files with a special character. Until a new file is written on the same disk area by DOS, you can recover a file that you have deleted. EXAMPLE C:\>UNDELETE *.BAT Restores any deleted files with the extension BAT in the current directory.

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PRINTING A FILE
Use the PRINT command to send a file to a printer.

EXAMPLE
C:\DOCS>PRINT MEMO.TXT Prints the contents of the file MEMO.TXT which is in the current directory.

CHANGING FILE ATTRIBUTES

Use the ATTRIB command to display or change file attributes. + Sets an attribute. Clears (removes) an attribute. R Read-only file attribute. A Archive file attribute. S System file attribute. H Hidden file attribute. EXAMPLE Sets the read-only attribute of the file AUTOEXEC.BAT in the current directory. Sets the hidden attribute of the file C:\>ATTRIB +H AUTOEXEC.BAT AUTOEXEC.BAT in the current directory. Removes the read only and hidden C:\>ATTRIB -R -H AUTOEXEC.BAT attributes of the file AUTOEXEC.BAT in the current directory. Sets the attributes of all the files with the extension SYS in the current A:\>ATTRIB +R +H +S *.SYS directory to read only, hidden, and system. C:\>ATTRIB +R AUTOEXEC.BAT
Some Additional Commands VER Practise working with file attributes. a. Set the hidden attribute of C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT. b. Display the contents of C:\. Can you see the file AUTOEXEC.BAT? c. Remove the hidden attribute of C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT. d. Display the contents of C:\. Can you see the file AUTOEXEC.BAT now?

Displays the version of DOS that you are using.

DATE

Check the system date and time on your computer. If they are not correct, change them.

Displays the current date and allows you to change it.

TIME

Displays the current time and allows you to change it.

CLS

Clears the screen.

R AC TI E C

R AC TI E C

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67

DOSKEY

Use the DOSKEY command to access a list of the commands that you have used. Use the UP and DOWN arrows to recall commands, ESC to clear the command line, F7 to show the command history, ALT+F7 to clear the command history, and F8 to search the command history.
PROMPT

Change the command prompt to your name, a space, the current drive, and a greater-than sign. For example: JOHN C:\>

Use the PROMPT command to change the command prompt. Write the new prompt using normal characters and the following special codes: $Q = (equal sign) $$ $ (dollar sign) $T Current time $D Current date $P Current drive and path $V MS-DOS version number $N Current drive $G > (greater-than sign) $L < (less-than sign) $B | (pipe) $_ ENTER-LINEFEED $E ASCII Escape code (code 27) $H Backspace (to delete a character that has been written in the command prompt) Changes the command prompt to COMPUTER>. Changes the command prompt to C:\>.
PATH

P
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R AC TI E C

EXAMPLE
C:\>PROMPT COMPUTER$G COMPUTER>PROMPT $P$G

Use the PATH command to display or set a search path for executable files (i.e., files with extension EXE). When you type the name of an executable file that you want to run, DOS searches the executable files in the current directory. If the file you need doesnt exist in the current directory, DOS searches for it in the root directory. If the file you need is not in the root directory, then DOS searches each directory in your search path. The search path contains a list of directories and subdirectories. It is usually stored in a file called AUTOEXEC.BAT that the computer reads when you switch it on.

EXAMPLE
C:\>PATH C:\>PATH C:\TP\BIN Displays the current search path. Changes the search path to C:\TP\BIN.

MS-DOS

Memory Usage
Conventional Memory: Conventional memory is the first 640 KB of memory. Extended Memory (XMS): The original version of DOS was designed for

the Intel 8086 micro processor and could only use the first 640 KB of memory. In 1984 IBM released the AT computer, which was based on the Intel 80286. On an AT computer, the first 640 KB of memory, i.e. conventional memory, was used by DOS, and the memory between 640 KB and 1 MB was used by the computer system itself. The rest of the memory, above 1 MB, is called Extended Memory. DOS could not use this Extended Memory, although other operating systems such as UNIX, or early versions of Windows or OS/2, could. Expanded Memory (EMS): Three companies, Lotus, Intel and Microsoft worked together and produced a specification called Expanded Memory, especially for programs that needed more than 640 KB of memory. Windows applications do not require Expanded Memory. The Upper Memory Blocks and the High Memory Area: Since the release of DOS 5, it is possible to load DOS Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) programs and device drivers into the memory space between 640 KB and 1 MB. This area of memory is called the Upper Memory Blocks (UMBs). The UMBs are divided into 6 areas (or blocks). Each block is 64 KB and they are called the A block, the B block, the C block, the D block, the E block, and the F block. The ROM-BIOS is loaded into the F block. The A and B blocks are used by the video system (i.e. the video ROM). The remaining blocks used may be ROM chips associated with hard disks or network cards (or any additional PC card that is installed into a PC that contains a RAM or ROM chip). Since the release of DOS 5, it has been possible to use an extra 64 KB area, directly above the 1 MB area. This is called the High Memory Area (HMA). It is not possible to load device drivers or TSR programs into the HMA, but part of the DOS operating system (the two hidden files and COMMAND.COM) can be loaded here.

The DOS Boot Sequence

When you switch on your computer, it starts (boots) using information on a disk. Usually a computer boots from the hard disk, but if there is a floppy disk in the floppy disk drive, your computer will try to boot from the floppy disk instead. To boot properly, the computer needs to find a boot record (special boot information), the DOS system files (IO.SYS and MS-DOS.SYS), and the COMMAND.COM file that contains the internal DOS commands, on the boot disk. The DOS configuration files (i.e. CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT) are desirable, but not necessary.

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When you start your computer the boot steps are: 1. ROM-based diagnostics. 2. The computer finds the boot record and executes the commands it contains. If it doesnt find the boot record, the computer displays an error message. 3. The boot record searches for the two system files, and if it finds them, it loads the first one (IO.SYS). If IO.SYS is not present, then a message is displayed. IO.SYS contains the system device drivers, that allows DOS to communicate with the standard components of the PC. 4. The computer loads MS-DOS.SYS. This is the DOS Kernel. 5. The computer loads CONFIG.SYS, if it is present. 6. The computer loads COMMAND.COM. This is the DOS Command Interpreter. 7. Finally, the computer loads AUTOEXEC.BAT.

The AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS Files

When your computer boots it reads two very important files called CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT. These files are usually in the root directory of the boot disk (which is usually the hard disk). These files contain important information about the system devices, and some important DOS settings.
AUTOEXEC.BAT file

AUTOEXEC.BAT is a batch file that contains commands that DOS runs when your computer starts. AUTOEXEC.BAT is generally used to customize your computers settings to suit your environment. Batch files contain a list of commands in a file. You can run all the commands by writing the name of the batch file at the command prompt and pressing Enter. A batch file is useful if you have a set of DOS commands that you often need to run in the same order. This is an example of an AUTOEXEC.BAT file
Display and examine the contents of AUTOEXEC.BAT on your computer.

@ECHO OFF SET LMOUSE=C:\MOUSE SET TEMP=C:\TEMP PATH C:\;C:\DOS;C:\TC\BIN;C:\WINDOWS LH KEYB UK,,C:\DOS\KEYBOARD.SYS PROMPT DOS V6.22$p$g LH /L:0;2,45488 /S C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE /X 512 128 LH /L:0;2,25808 /S C:\MOUSE\MOUSE CLS VER WIN

P
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@ECHO OFF Tells DOS to just read the lines in the file without displaying them on the screen. SET LMOUSE=C:\MOUSE Points to the directory which contains the mouse driver. This is only necessary if you have a specialized, non-standard mouse. It is not necessary if you have a standard mouse. SET TEMP=C:\TEMP Tells Windows and MS-DOS where to store temporary files. PATH C:\; C:\DOS; C:\TC\BIN; C:\WINDOWS Sets the directory path, i.e. the list of directories that MS-DOS will look in to find a program if it is not in the current directory. In this example, DOS will look first in the C:\ directory, then in the C:\DOS directory, then in the C:\TC\BIN directory, and finally in the C:\WINDOWS directory. LH KEYB UK,,C:\DOS\ KEYBOARD.SYS Loads the KEYB program into the upper memory blocks with the setting UK (for a UK keyboard). This tells MS-DOS that your keyboard uses a UK keyboard layout. PROMPT DOS V6.22$p$g Sets the DOS command prompt. This example uses characters and special symbols to create the prompt DOS V6.22C:\>. LH /L:0;2,45488 /S C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE /X 512 128 Loads the MS-DOS disk cache command SMARTDRIVE into the upper memory blocks. The SMARTDRIVE program makes it possible to use a part of the hard disk as virtual memory. LH /L:0;2,25808 /S C:\MOUSE\MOUSE Loads the mouse driver used by DOS programs into high memory. If you never use a mouse with DOS, you do not need to load this driver. CLS Clears the screen, i.e. deletes any text on the screen. VER Displays the DOS version number on the screen. WIN Starts Windows. Without this line your computer will leave you at the C:\> prompt after it has booted.

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CONFIG.SYS file

CONFIG.SYS the second important DOS configuration file. It is usually used to customize hardware devices. This is an example of a CONFIG.SYS file DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM DOS=HIGH,UMB BUFFERS=10,0 FILES=40 LASTDRIVE=E FCBS=4,0 STACKS=9,256 COUNTRY=044,,C:\DOS\COUNTRY.SYS DEVICEHIGH /L:2,15792 =C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,850,2)

DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS Allows DOS to access the high memory area, just above the 1MB area. DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM Allows DOS to access the upper memory blocks between 640Kb and 1MB, and also to recognize the type of memory available above 1MB, In this example, the memory type is expanded memory and upper memory blocks. DOS=HIGH,UMB Moves most of the DOS file COMMAND.COM above the 1MB area into high memory. BUFFERS=10,0 FILES=40 LASTDRIVE=E FCBS=4,0 STACKS=9,256 BUFFERS sets an area of memory for commands that are waiting to be processed. FILES sets the number of files that DOS can keep open at the same time. LASTDRIVE sets the last drive letter that DOS recognizes (usually E, although the maximum value is Z). FCBS sets information about file control blocks. File control blocks contain details of a file. STACKS sets internal areas of memory that DOS uses to make calculations and process operatings.

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COUNTRY=044,,C:\DOS\COUNTRY.SYS Tells DOS which country you are from. Each country except the USA has its own code number. The code number is usually the some as the international telephone code for the country. Here, the country is set to 44, i.e., which is the United Kingdom. DEVICEHIGH /L:2,15792 =C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,850,2) Tells DOS to load into an upper memory block the display system TSR program which is configured for your monitors display. The DISPLAY command allows you to display international characters on your monitor.

Getting Help
You can get help about DOS commands in two ways.
1. Get information about all DOS commands.

EXAMPLE
C:\>HELP Displays information about all commands.

2. Get information about only one DOS command.

EXAMPLE
C:\>HELP XCOPY
Find out how to add some lines in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file to display a menu when you switch on your computer, so that you can choose to start one of the programs in the menu. Your menu could look like this, for example. Choose a program to start: 1. Norton Commander 2. Pascal 3. C 4. Windows 5. DOS

Displays information about the XCOPY command.

S S

ELF

P
MS-DOS
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R O JEC T

MS-DOS has been designed in English. Design an operating system in your own language.

Display and examine the contents of CONFIG.SYS on your computer.

TU D Y

SOME DOS ERROR AND WARNING MESSAGES MESSAGE DESCRIPTION

You are going to delete some data. Make sure that you want to delete it. You wanted to find, copy or delete the file called File not found <filename> <filename>, but DOS cannot find the file. General Failure reading drive <drive DOS cannot read from a drive. The file might have bad name> sectors. You should run Scandisk. You tried to copy to a file with the same name in the File cannot be copied onto itself same directory. You are running very large programs in memory and Not enough memory there is no more memory. Exit some programs to make space in the memory. Bad or missing command interpreter The COMMAND.COM file is missing or corrupted. Not ready reading drive A: Abort, Retry, Fail? The floppy disk is not properly inserted in the floppy disk drive. Access Denied You are trying to delete or make changes to read-only files. Required parameter missing You didnt enter enough parameters for a command. The floppy disk is damaged. You should run Scandisk, or Data error reading drive A: format the disk again. Error in EXE file An EXE file is broken or may be infected by a virus. Insufficient disk space There is not enough space on the drive. Directory already exists You tried to create a directory which already exists. Non-system disk or disk error Replace You tried to boot your computer from a disk which is not and strike any key when ready a system disk. Unable to create directory You tried to create a directory with an invalid name. Your floppy is write protected. Change the write protect Write-protect error writing drive A: swich on the floppy disk. Bad command or file name You entered a wrong command or executable filename. Invalid drive specification You entered a drive name that doesnt exist or that DOS cant see. Invalid path You entered a wrong path for a file. Invalid switch /x You used an wrong switch for a command. You are going to delete a file. Make sure that you want <filename> Delete (Y/N)? to delete it. Press any key to continue The computer is waiting for you to do something. Press Strike any key when ready ENTER or any key to continue. Press ENTER when ready Are you sure (Y/N)? The first track on your disk is broken. Your disk is most probably unusable. Run Scandisk to try to repair the disk. Warning: All data on non-removable disk You are going to lose all the data on the hard disk when Drive C: will be lost! Proceed with format (Y/N)? you format it. Make sure that you want to format it. Parameter format not correct You entered a wrong parameter for a command. Format another (Y/N) Do you want to format another floppy disk? Too many parameters You entered too many parameters for a command. Invalid directory You wanted to use or copy to a directory which does not exist. Track 0 bad, disk unusable

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Solve the clues and find each word in the wordsearch puzzle. The first two have been done for you. C O Y R O B T C E R I D B U S N I T E U

CLUE
A particular issue or release of a hardware product or software title. This command clears the screen. This command creates a new file. A text editor in DOS. This command is another form of RENAME. This command prepares a disk for use with DOS. An instruction in a computer program. The top directory of a drive. This command is another form of DELETE. This command creates, changes, or deletes the name of a disk. A route through a structured collection of information. This command provides help information for DOS commands. This command displays previous DOS commands. This command displays the contents of a file. This command prints a file. This command copies one or more files to another location. This command displays the DOS version. This command displays a list of files and subdirectories in a directory. This command displays or changes file attributes. This command displays or sets the date. This command moves and renames files. This command graphically displays the structure of a drive or path. This command deletes the contents of a directory with all its subdirectories. This command creates a directory. This command changes the current directory. Acronym for Disk Operating System. This command deletes a directory. Acronym for File Allocation Table. A special on-screen indicator. A person who uses a computer. A complete, named collection of information, such as a program, a set of data used by a program, or a user-created document. A hardware device that reads from, or writes to, a disk.

WORD

I R T T A T Y P E F S Y S H A T T K L E B A L L A I S K C O P Y E T

G D E L T R E E R A N F O R M E N R S E T A D

I A O N M O V E N R R S D

S O N F Y R E D O U T O O R N U C O U N D E L E T E S T H A N Y I O R I A V M I P F D I V I A E R C L M O P T T E C T S I F S U E A M I T C I R P U

I S K R A C R S O

S C T M R R D N H C D G E S A R E T E M V T P P R

L R O V E E R T C O O D A R A P M

I N T P C O P Y E R

CLUE
A sequence of instructions that can be executed by a computer.

WORD
PROGRAM

This command copies the contents of one floppy disk DISKCOPY to another. A letter typed after a command that tells the command to perform a task in a special way.

N TER TAI M EN T N

This command recovers deleted files. It can contain up to eight characters. An alternative command for DEL. One or more symbols that show you where to enter commands. A catalog for filenames and other directories stored on a disk. Acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A child directory of another directory. This command creates or deletes partitions on a disk. This command displays or sets the system time. A logically distinct portion of a disk that is like a separate disk.

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1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

7. 8.

9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19.

What does an operating system do? Give two examples of DOS commands. What must be done first to a new floppy disk? What is the most common size and capacity of a floppy disk? How are hard disks better than floppy disks? What is wrong with each filename? a. RECIPE,DOC b. ONE+ONE.TWO c. COM1.EXE Give the full pathname for the file MEMO.DOC which is in the DOCS directory in the root directory of the C drive. COMMAND.COM is a command file. a. What is the filename? b. What is the extension? What are the two types of DOS command? What is an alternative command for DEL? What do you need to set so that DOS can find a command that is not in the current directory? What is a parameter? Give an example. Which command do you use to check the condition of a disk? How many characters do these wildcards represent? a. ? b. * The floppy disk that you copy from is called the _________ disk. The disk that you copy to is called the _____________ disk. Write the command to copy a floppy disk in drive A to another floppy disk if you only have one floppy disk drive. Create a system diskette. (Format and transfer the system files to it.) Check the condition of a floppy disk. How many hidden files are there? Copy the files CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT from the hard disk root directory to a formatted system diskette. Follow these steps to boot from the system disk. a. Switch off your computer. b. Make sure that your system disk is in the A drive. c. Switch on your computer. d. Wait a moment. Does your computer boot normally?

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20. Make a copy of A:\AUTOEXEC.BAT on your floppy disk, and call it 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33.

34. 35.

MEMO.TXT. Make a copy of A:\CONFIG.SYS on your floppy disk and give it your name with the extension TXT (for example, JOHN.TXT). Rename MEMO.TXT as MEMO_2.DOC. Copy ALL the files in the C:\DOS directory with the .INI extension to your floppy disk. (hint: use a wildcard). Copy your disk to another floppy disk, and compare the result. Are the disks the same? Print a copy of MEMO_2.DOC on a printer. Display the contents of the file <Yourname>.TXT on the screen. What is written in the third line of the file? Write the command to find information about the COPY command. You are in the C:\ directory. Write the command to list all the files in the A:\DOS directory, in a wide format. What must you be sure about when you try to delete a directory using RD? Write the commands to create, move, and copy a directory. Which file contains your PATH setting? Write the command to change from drive C to drive E. a. Take a blank formatted floppy disk and change its label to DOS_BOOTUP. b. Place the DOS_BOOTUP diskette in your floppy disk drive. Move to the drive (A:\). c. Create a directory called QWERTY which has three sub-directories called 1, 2, and 3. Write down all the steps you use. d. Copy the file C:\DOS\EDIT.COM to the directory called 3 on your floppy disk. Write down all the steps you use. e. Copy all the files with extension CPI in C:\DOS\ to the directory called 1 on your floppy disk. Write down all the steps you use. f. Delete the 2 directory on your floppy disk. g. Create a sub-directory of the 1 directory which is called ASDF. Write down the commands you use. h. Check the condition of the floppy disk. Which command did you use? Which files does DOS read when your computer boots? Which command in CONFIG.SYS allows DOS to access the high memory area?

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36. What is the country code for: a. the UK? b. your country? 37. Which command in CONFIG.SYS allows DOS to access the upper 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43.

memory blocks? How do you tell DOS where to store temporary files? You want to run a program that is not in the current directory. Where will DOS look to find the program? What does SMARTDRIVE do? Your mouse works in Windows, but not in DOS. Give one possible reason. What is a batch file? a. Write the meaning of each line in this file. Use the HELP command if you are not sure what a particular command does. @ECHO OFF REM This is DISPLAY.BAT CLS TYPE A:\AUTOEXEC.TXT PAUSE CLS COPY A:\AUTOEXEC.TXT A:\AUTOEXEC.OLD DIR A: PAUSE CLS VOL VER b. Save the file as C:\DISPLAY.BAT. c. Create a file called AUTOEXEC.TXT on a floppy disk. Write your name in the AUTOEXEC.TXT file. d. Move to C:\. e. Make sure your floppy disk is in the drive. f. Run DISPLAY.BAT. Does your batch file do what you expected?

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A AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) 21, 38 Altair 9 AMD 20 AMD ATHLON 20 American Standard Code for Information Interchange 57 Antivirus 46, 47, 51 Arrow keys 25 ASCII 57, 68 ASP (Active Server Pages) 46 Assembly 48 Atanasoff 9 ATTRIB 67 AT Attachment (ATA) 21 AUTOEXEC.BAT 70 B Backspace key 26 Basic 48 BeOS 41 binary digit 12 binary term 12 BIOS 6 Bit 12 Blaise Pascal 8 Boot sector 31 Boot Sequence 69 bus 19 bus arbitrator (chipset) 19 Bus Speed 19 Bus Width 19 Byte 15 C C 49 C++ 50 CAD 43, 44 CAD (Computer Aided Design) 10 Caps Lock 26 case 24, 25, 26, 33 Cassette Tape 33 CD-ROM 33 Charles Babbage 9 CHKDSK 61 CLS 67, 70, 71, 78

COBOL 36, 48, 51 COM1 7, 6, 19 COM2 19 Command 56, 57 Command prompt 56, 60, 68 CONFIG.SYS 72 Conventional Memory 69 COPY 57, 65 CPU 18, 19, 20, 36 CPU (Central Processing Unit) 20 Ctrl key 25 Current directory 56, 62 Current drive 55, 60, 68 Cursor 57 D data 18 Database 10, 20, 27, 43 Data rate 32 DATE 67, 68 DEL 66 Delphi 51 DELTREE 63 desktop 7 Digital Camera 18, 19, 27 DIR 56, 62, 73 Directory 56 DISKCOMP 61 DISKCOPY 60, 75 Disk drive 55, 57, 62, 76 DOSKEY 68 Dot Matrix Printers 30 Drawing 44, 47 Driver 57 dumb terminal 7 DVD-ROM 33 E EDIT 64 EISA 19 End key 26 ENIAC 7, 8, 9 Enter key 25 ERROR AND WARNING MESSAGES 75 Escape key 26 Ethernet card 22 Exabyte 12

Expanded Memory 69, 72 expansion slot 19 Extension 55 F FAT (File Allocation Table) 55, 59 File 54 Filename 54 File attribute 55 Floppy Disk 32 FORMAT 59, 74 Fortran 49 Function keys 24 G Game 46 Gigabyte 12 Graphical User Interface (GUI) 21, 36 H Hardware 6 hard disk 31 HELP 73 Hermann Hollerith 9 High-level language 47, 48, 49, 50 Home key 25 I i80486 20 i8086 20 Inkjet Printers 30 Insert key 26 Integrated Circuit 8, 19 Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) 21 Internet 45 iPentium 20 iPentium-II 20 iPentium-IV 20 iPentiumPro 20 ISA 19, 21 J Java 50 Joystick 28, 46 K

keyboard 24 Kilobyte 12 L LABEL 60 laptop 7, 19, 23 laser printer 44 Laser Printers 30 Light pen 29 Linux 36, 39, 59 low-level formatting 32 Low-level language 47 LPT1 19 LPT2 19 M Mac OS 32 mainboard 14, 19, 23, 31 mainframe 7, 51 MD 62 Megabyte 12 Microphone 22, 28 Microprocessor 8, 19, 20, 22 modem 14, 23 Monitor 30 Motorola 68000 20 Mouse 28 MOVE 66 MS-DOS 54 Multimedia 45 N Network operating system 37 Novell NetWare 39

Numeric Keypad 27 Num Lock 27 O Operating Systems 36 OS/2 39 P Page Layout 44 Page Down key 25 Page Up key 25 palmtop 23 parallel port 19 Parameter 56 Partition 55 Pascal 49 PATH 68, 70, 71 Path 53, 56 Pause key 26 PC 8 PC-DOS 37 PCI 21 PCMCIA 19, 23 Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) 21 Petabyte 12 PlayStation 10 Plotter 31 PowerPC G4 20 Presentation 43 PRINT 57, 67 Printer 30 Print Screen key 27 Program 54 Programming 47

Programming language 47 PROMPT 68 R RAM 6, 14 RAM (Random Access Memory) 20 RD 57, 63 REN 66 Root directory 56 S Scanner 28 Seek time 32 serial port 19 Seymour Cray 9 Shift key 26 Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) 22 Softwarfe 14 Spacebar 25 Speaker 31 Spreadsheet 42 Subdirectory 56 system unit 18 T Tab key 27 Terabyte 12 TIME 67 Touch screen 29 Transistor 8 TREE 62 TSR 54 TV card 23 TYPE 64

U UNDELETE 66 UNIVAC 9 UNIX 39 USB (Universal Serial Bus) 19 User 54 Utility 46 V Vacuum Tubes 8 VER 67, 71 Version 56 VIA 20 Visual Basic 51 Visual C++ 51 VL-bus 21 VOL 61 W WebCam 29 Wildcard 56 Windows 95 37 Windows 98 38 Windows 9x 37 Windows NT 40 Windows XP 40 Word Processor 41 X XCOPY 63 Z Zip Drive 33

1. Borland, Russell. Running Microsoft Word 97. Microsoft Press, 1997. 2. Dodge, Mark, Chris Kinata, and Craig Stinson. Running Microsoft Excel for Windows 95. Microsoft Press, 1995. 3. Finlay, Mark. Getting Graphic. M&T Publishing, 1993. 4. Gookin, Dan. DOS for Dummies. IDG Books Worldwide, Inc., 1994. 5. Gookin, Dan. PCs for Dummies. IDG Books Worldwide, Inc., 1996. 6. Koffman, Elliot B. 4th ed. Pascal Problem Solving and Program Design. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1993. 7. Livingston, Brian. Windows 3.1 Secrets. IDG Books Worldwide, Inc., 1992. 8. Microsoft Office 2000 Step by Step. Microsoft Press, 1999. 9. Teach Yourself Windows 95 Visually. Marangraphics, 1996.