Software for computers is mainly made up of programs that can be used on a computer using certain other programs, if necessary. It should have the same structure as the software package and be compiled and equipped with instructions established for the software. Finally, it should be recorded and fed into the software according to accepted rules. These conditions ensure the compatibility of the programs belonging to the software and make it possible for any user to use them.
Test programs that monitor the working condition of the computer are also part of the software, although they are used only by service personnel, are not used in programming, and do not affect programming.
The software package is a program supplement to a digital computer; operating together, they form a kind of new machine, which has its own system of operations and machine language. The software system includes programs that provide input of orders for the performance of jobs, preliminary planning of the course of job execution and distribution of machine equipment, the input of programs or parts of them, operational execution of jobs, statistical records of equipment used, and machine time expended, and output of data. As of 1974, no precise distribution of functions among the various programs of the software package and no unambiguous terminology had been established. The programs for feeding programs and parts of them are usually called loaders, the program for preliminary planning of the course of jobs is named the planner (sometimes the monitor), and the program for direct control of jobs is named the dispatcher (sometimes the supervisor). The other programs have different names in different software systems.
The composition of the package and the internal structure of its programs depend to a large degree on the configuration of the computer, such as its hardware (digital computers of the same type may differ in the number of disk or tape storage units or in the number of input and output devices), the functional interrelationships of the hardware, the class of problems that the computer is primarily intended for, and its mode of use.
This section of the software also includes programs that are used at the start of computer operations to obtain a particular version of the software system that corresponds to the current computer configuration and to make changes in the software system when there has been a change in the configuration of the computer or when the software system is modernized.
The programming facilities are various programs used to create new programs, including translators from various algorithmic languages and programs that assemble programs from modules and automate the debugging of new programs under development.