APPLICATION OF PERSONAL COMPUTERS

Personal computers have a lot of applications, however, there are some major categories of applications: home and hobby, word processing, professional, educational, small business and engineering and scientific.

Home and hobby. Personal computers enjoy great popularity among experimenters and hobbyists. They are an exciting hobby. All hobbyists need not be engineers or programmers. There are many games that use the full capabilities of a computer to provide many hours of exciting leisure-time adventure.

The list of other home and hobby applications of PCs is almost endless, including: checking account management, budgeting, personal finance, planning, investment analyses, telephone answering and dialing, home security, home environment and climate control, appliance control, calendar management, maintenance of address and mailing lists and what not.

Word processing. At home or at work, applications software, called a word processing program, enables you to correct or modify any document in any manner you wish before printing it. Using the monitor as a display screen, you are able to view what you have typed to correct mistakes in spelling or grammar, add or delete sentences, move paragraphs around, and replace words. The letter or document can be stored for future use.

Professional. The category of professional includes persons making extensive use of word processing, whose occupations arc particularly suited to the desk-top use of PCs. Examples of other occupations are accountants, financial advisors, stock brokers, tax consultants, lawyers, architects, engineers, educators and all levels of managers. Applications programs that are popular with persons in these occupations include accounting, income tax preparation, statistical analysis, graphics, stock market forecasting and computer modeling. The electronic worksheet is, by far, the computer modeling program most widely used by professionals. It can be used for scheduling, planning, and the examination of "what if" situations.

Educational. Personal computers are having and will continue to have a profound influence upon the classroom, affecting both the learner and the teacher. Microcomputers are making their way into classrooms to an ever-increasing extent, giving impetus to the design of programmed learning materials that can meet the demands of student and teacher.

Two important types of uses for personal computers in education are computer-managed instruction (CMI), and computer-assisted instruction (CAI). CMI software is used to assist the instructor in the management of all classroom-related activities, such as record keeping, work assignments, testing, and grading. Applications of CAI include mathematics, reading, typing, computer literacy, programming languages, and simulations of real-world situations.

Read and translate the text. Write out the sentences describing the principles of modem’s work.

The piece of equipment that allows a computer to communicate with other computers over telephone lines is called a modem. The modem allows the individual to access information from all over the world and use that information in everyday life. Connecting with banks, Automatic Teller Machines, cash registers to read credit cards, access travel agents, buy products, e-mail, access databases, and teleconferencing, the modems provide easy access to many services. Files can be transferred easily, by uploading to another machine, or downloading to your own machine within a matter of minutes. The computer modem can be used as a telephone answering system, and documents can be faxed from one computer to another assuring fast and easy access to important documents.

A modem takes computer information and changes it into a signal that can be sent over telephone lines. The modem is a bridge between digital and analog signals. The computer is of the digital type, and the telephone uses analog technology. The modem converts the "0"s and "l"s of the computer (off-on switches) into an analog signals modulating the frequency of the electronic wave or signal. The modem does just the opposite and demodulates the signal back into digital code. The modem gets its name from MOdulate and the DEModulate.

Most people believe that you need a separate phone line for a modem, but that is not true. Your modem and telephone can share one line, the problem arises when someone else needs to use the telephone while the modem is in use. Also disable call waiting, it could disrupt your modem connection while the modem is in use.

There are three kinds of modems — internal, external, and fax. All modems do the same thing, they allow computers to communicate through telephone lines. This lets computers exchange information everywhere. Internal Modem is a circuit board that plugs into one of the expansion slots of the computer. Internal modems usually are cheaper than external modems, but when problems occur, fixing and troubleshooting the modem can sometimes prove to be quite difficult. External Modem attaches to the back of the computer by way of a cable that plugs into the modem port. It is usually less expensive and very portable. It can be used with other computers very easily by unplugging it and plugging it into another computer. Fax Modem can be hooked up to your telephone and used to send information to your computer. Your computer can also send information to a fax machine. Most computer modems are modems with faxing capabilities.

Programming is the process of preparing a set of coded instructions which enables the computer to solve specific problems or to perform specific functions. The essence of computer programming is the encoding of the program for the computer by means of algorythms. The thing is that any problem is expressed in mathematical terms, it contains formulae, equations and calculations. But the computer cannot manipulate formulae, equations and calculations. Any problem must be specially processed for the computer to understand it, that is — coded or programmed.

The phase in which the system's computer programs are written is called the development phase. The programs are lists of instructions that will be followed by the control unit of the central processing unit (CPU). The instructions of the program must be complete and in the appropriate sequence, or else the wrong answers will result. To guard against these errors in logic and to document the program's logical approach, logic plans should be developed.

There are two common techniques for planning the logic of a program. The first technique is flowcharting. A flowchart is a plan in the form of a graphic or pictorial representation that uses predefined symbols to illustrate the program logic. It is, therefore, a "picture" of the logical steps to be performed by the computer. Each of the predefined symbol shapes stands for a general operation. The symbol shape communicates the nature of the general operation, and the specifics are written within the symbol. A plastic or metal guide called a template is used to make drawing the symbols easier.

The second technique for planning program logic is called pseudocode. Pseudocode is an imitation of actual program instructions. It allows a program-like structure without the burden of programming rules to follow. Pseudocode is less time-consuming for the professional programmer than is flowcharting. It also emphasizes a top-down approach to program structure.

Pseudocode has three basic structures: sequence, decision, and looping logic. With these three structures, any required logic can be expressed.

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