A computer program is a collection of specialized information referred to as instructions or code as well as a modest amount of non-instruction information that is embedded within the computer program that collectively enables a computer to manipulate information. A computer program running on a computer is known as a process. The execution of a computer program is performed by one or more central processing units (CPU) or processors and may involve accessing information stored in memory or mass storage, as well as using input and output devices to receive and transmit information outside the computer.
A computer program is written as "source code" written in a programming language. The source code may be directly executed by a source code interpreter, but more commonly is processed by a tool known as a compiler and translated into an "object code" format, which may be an intermediate form known as a bytecode or actual machine language instructions.
Since programs can become quite large, they can be broken down into modules, typically one per source file. A tool known as a linker is then used to combine the compiled modules plus preprocessed object modules known as libraries to produce the computer program itself which is then stored in an executable file.
Some computer programs can be executed directly by the central processing unit, but some programming language tools output an executable in the form of bytecodes that must be interpreted by runtime software known as an interpreter. Some tools allow the developer or user to choose whether the program should be directly executed in machine language or interpreted.
Slightly inaccurate synonym for computer software.
Synonym for computer software program.
See the Wikipedia article for "Computer Program".
See the Webopedia article for Program.
Singular of computer programs.
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Updated: March 09, 2006 01:48:38 PM -0500
Copyright © 2006 John W. Krupansky d/b/a Base Technology