Dictionary.net

(computer science) written programs or procedures or rules and associated documentation pertaining to the operation of a computer system and that are stored in read/write memory; "the market for software is expected to expand"

(computer science) written programs or procedures or rules and associated documentation pertaining to the operation of a computer system and that are stored in read/write memory; "the market for software is expected to expand"

Sequential operating instructions for a particular problem or function to be run on a digital computer.

(Or "computer program", "program", "code") Theinstructions executed by a computer, as opposed to thephysical device on which they run (the "hardware").The term was coined by the eminent statistician, John Tukey.Programs stored on non-volatile storage built fromintegrated circuits (e.g. ROM or PROM) are usuallycalled firmware.Software can be split into two main types - system softwareand application software or application programs. Systemsoftware is any software required to support the production orexecution of application programs but which is not specific toany particular application. Examples of system software wouldinclude the operating system, compilers, editors andsorting programs.Examples of application programs would include an accountspackage or a CAD program. Other broad classes ofapplication software include real-time software, businesssoftware, scientific and engineering software, embeddedsoftware, personal computer software and artificialintelligence software.Software includes both source code written by humans andexecutable machine code produced by assemblers orcompilers. It does not usually include the data processedby programs unless this is in a format such as multimediawhich depends on the use of computers for its presentation.This distinction becomes unclear in cases such as spreadsheets which can contain both instructions (formulae andmacros) and data. There are also various intermediatecompiled or semi-compiled, forms of software such aslibrary files and byte-code.Some claim that documentation (both paper and electronic) isalso software. Others go further and define software to beprograms plus documentation though this does not correspondwith common usage.The noun "program" describes a single, complete andmore-or-less self-contained list of instructions, often storedin a single file, whereas "code" and "software" areuncountable nouns describing some number of instructions whichmay constitute one or more programs or part thereof. Mostprograms, however, rely heavily on various kinds of operatingsystem software for their execution. The nounds "code" and"software" both refer to the same thing but "code" tends tosuggest an interest in the implementation details whereas"software" is more of a user's term.