Chapter 9. Databases, Applications, and Software Reliability

This chapter builds on Chapter 8's discussion of programming with an exploration of the software that computer users interact with directly, known in the industry as applications software. Actually, we'll treat one kind of application, the database, as a category apart from other applications. There are several reasons for this. One is that databases bridge the programming and applications world; most databases include comprehensive programming languages that are used to create applications. The typical user works with the products of database programming, not with the database software directly. Another reason for considering databases separately is that databases comprise as much a building block of information organization as they do applications for end users. For example, databases are a resource for other programs—virtually every type of software uses some type of database as part of its internal workings.

The only true applications that will be discussed here are spreadsheets and word processing. In addition to being the tools central to the work of most computer users, their development provides some interesting insights into the history and dynamics of the software industry. This provides a segue into the chapter's last topic, which is the software industry itself. After this chapter, you will better understand

• Database organization and structure

• The database market

• Software development strategies and tools

• The development of two key applications, spreadsheets and word processors

• The software industry in general