A3-THE WINDOWS PROGRAM

 

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 20^th 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.