By pragyansharma polavarapu
WINDOWS is the all encompassing program to supervise and control several programs or tasks being done inside the computer like WORD,PAINT, MUSIC ,PHOTO ,VIDEO etc and watch their present position using the icons and toggle buttons of the windows . Such action brings before our eye a scenario like watching action on all sides from near a high round table in a central hall with
windows opening into every working room below all around ( like photo studio, sound studio, book shop, printing press, telephone booth etc) . As I read somewhere in a computer science book the environment of a windows program is also similar to a hotel kitchen situation---chief expert cook sitting iat a central table and supervising the cooking activities of several cooks in several sections all around . inside that room .
Windows environment can be understood in another way. Suppose an expert architect has taken up many separate projects at different places. He has a separate file for each section of work of that project like engineering, financial ,interior decoration etc . He maintains each file separately until the buildings are completed in all aspects . He keeps the files safely "saved" and locked in a in a cabinet. We can treat work in each window as equal to one such project. Actually ,from software view also , each “WINDOW” of WORD program corresponds to a “separate computer file” .
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However I had only the haziest understanding of "Windows" program then. I never dared to click the unknown icons or never ventured to implement the instructions in the “Dialogue Boxes” appearing now and then on the WINDOW screens. I feared that if I carelessly operated them , I would enter deep into the abyss of an unknown program without knowing how to wriggle out. I may permanently destroy the computer’s internal circuitry.
The reasoning style in computer’s digital brain (CPU) closely resembles the human reasoning and to our commonsense reactions to events in our daily life . In one way the “FILE” in WORD program is like the student note book in a particular class in a school . Each student has a separate note book with a fixed LABEL -- with student’s name,class,roll number and subject.The FILE in the computer has also a proper title and additional details. The files in computer are also like the files in an office. In offices also the files have individual file numbers and brief descriptions on the cover.
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The comparisons do not stop there. The “MAIN MEMORY ” in the IAS model of computer architecture (now adopted in all the millions of computers in the world) closely resembles the class room black board used by teachers in schools. The concept of MAIN MEMORY was originally introduced in the IAS model computer in 1940s by Prof Jon von Neumann one of the greatest mathematicians of 20th century to give coded electronic instructions to the CPU the brain of computer and to give strict step by step sinstructions to CPU.
Very definite parts were created with specific tasks. The IAS computer was organized like a very efficient government office or like a highly disciplined army unit. There were “registers” like well trained office clerks. The ALU was the most efficient mathematics doing department and all mathematical work was done only inside it. The ALU is also the thinking and policy deciding section (logic section) and advised the CPU through perhaps yes/no type electronic signals. the CPU the overall commander depends on ALU for all decision making/mathematical work.
Just as each class room has a black board on which teacher writes the detailed steps to solve a tough algebra problem ,each computer has its MAIN MEMORY like a writing board. The entire computer is controlled by an electronic brain called CPU. it is like the commander in chief .
But the CPU is a slave to the human engineer outside. The human engineer gives his instructions to CPU through the key board in a coded software language and they get printed on the MAIN MEMORY . Inside computer there is a TRANSLATOR software which in a millionth sof second translates the human engineer’s instructionans into the binary language of 01010101 which only is understood by the digital brain CPU and other digital parts of the computer.
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