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Software is a collection of coder programs that run on your computer.

Software is considered soft because you can change it all the time.

You know those app updates you get?

Well, that's a developer changing their software.

Other examples of software are Internet browsers, operating systems, and

even desktop applications like Word or Pages.

Most software falls into two major categories, application software and

system software.

Application software is probably the most familiar to you because you

probably use applications all the time.

When you fire up Word, Spotify, or

your Internet browser you're firing up application software.

System software is a little different.

It's designed to operate and control the computer's hardware and

provide a platform for running application software.

These include operating systems, utility software, and device drivers.

The languages that are used in system software are usually more

directly accessing the physical hardware of the machine.

As a general purpose user, you might take system software for

granted because it runs in the background.

But this software is the foundation for

all other software you'll run on your computer.

Within application software there's special programs used to process code,

called programming software.

These are editors, debuggers, compilers, and linkers used to translate and

combine computer programs into executables, which end up as binary.

Some software products combine several of these into one product, which is

then called an integrated development environment, or IDE for shorts.

These programming tools can come in many forms, but the tool you'll most commonly

use here on Treehouse is a robust text editor and terminal called Workspaces.

So, how do you write software?

I thought you'd never ask.

You have to program it, of course