DEFINITION

General Purpose Application Software is likely to be used by a wide range of users to develop their own applications. The USER dictates what the application achieves. This should not be confused with: Special purpose software which performs a particular business/scientific/industrial task and is likely to dictate what happens next. e,g, Retail purchasing software which accepts customer orders, produces an invoice and possibly a packing/delivery note sent directly to the warehouse automatically. System software which helps co-ordinate activities in the computer. The operating system is the best example. GPS software is composed of Spreadsheet, Word Processing, Database, Graphics, Presentation software and others not examined in this module.

INFO

A general purpose software would be anything that aids in allowing you to accomplish simple computer related tasks For example: word processing software, spreadsheet software, etc.

TOOLS

As with other software, embedded system designers use compilers, assemblers, and debuggers to develop embedded system software. However, they may also use some more specific tools:

In circuit debuggers or emulators . Utilities to add a checksum or CRC to a program, so the embedded system can check if the program is valid. For systems using digital signal processing, developers may use a math workbench such as Scilab / Scicos, MATLAB / Simulink, EICASLAB, MathCad, Mathematica,or FlowStone DSP to simulate the mathematics. They might also use libraries for both the host and target which eliminates developing DSP routines as done in DSPnano RTOS and Unison Operating System. Custom compilers and linkers may be used to improve optimisation for the particular hardware. An embedded system may have its own special language or design tool, or add enhancements to an existing language such as Forth or Basic. Another alternative is to add a real-time operating system or embedded operating system, which may have DSP capabilities like DSPnano RTOS. Modeling and code generating tools often based on state machines Software tools can come from several sources: Software companies that specialize in the embedded market Ported from the GNU software development tools Sometimes, development tools for a personal computer can be used if the embedded processor is a close relative to a common PC processor As the complexity of embedded systems grows, higher level tools and operating systems are migrating into machinery where it makes sense. For example, cellphones, personal digital assistants and other consumer computers often need significant software that is purchased or provided by a person other than the manufacturer of the electronics. In these systems, an open programming environment such as Linux, NetBSD, OSGi or Embedded Java is required so that the third-party software provider can sell to a large market.

DEBUGGING
Embedded debugging may be performed at different levels, depending on the facilities available. From simplest to most sophisticated they can be roughly grouped into the following areas:

Interactive resident debugging, using the simple shell provided by the embedded operating system (e.g. Forth and Basic) External debugging using logging or serial port output to trace operation using either a monitor in flash or using a debug server like the Remedy Debugger which even works for heterogeneous multicore systems. An in-circuit debugger (ICD), a hardware device that connects to the microprocessor via a JTAG or Nexus interface. This allows the operation of the microprocessor to be controlled externally, but is typically restricted to specific debugging capabilities in the processor. An in-circuit emulator (ICE) replaces the microprocessor with a simulated equivalent, providing full control over all aspects of the microprocessor. A complete emulator provides a simulation of all aspects of the hardware, allowing all of it to be controlled and modified, and allowing debugging on a normal PC. Unless restricted to external debugging, the programmer can typically load and run software through the tools, view the code running in the processor, and start or stop its operation. The view of the code may be as HLL source-code, assembly code or mixture of both. Because an embedded system is often composed of a wide variety of elements, the debugging strategy may vary. For instance, debugging a software- (and microprocessor-) centric embedded system is different from debugging an embedded system where most of the processing is performed by peripherals (DSP, FPGA, co-processor). An increasing number of embedded systems today use more than one single processor core. A common problem with multi-core development is the proper synchronization of software execution. In such a case, the embedded system design may wish to check the data traffic on the busses between the processor cores, which requires very low-level debugging, at signal/bus level, with a logic analyzer, for instance.

LAYOUT LAYOUT TYPES

Layout refers to the dimensioning of content in a device display, and the delivery of media in a content related stream. Web design layouts result in visual content frameworks: these frameworks can be fixed, they can use units of measure that are relative, or they can provide fluid layout with proportional dimensions. The deployment flowchart (a useful tool on any design project)

should address content layout. Many units of measure exist, but here are some popular dimension formats: Pixel measure results in fixed or static content Em measure results in proportional content that is relative to font-size Percent measure results in fluid content that shrinks and grows to "fit" display windows Proportional, liquid and hybrid layout are also referred to as dynamic design. Hybrid layout incorporates any combination of fixed, proportional or fluid elements within (or pointing to) a single page. The hybrid web design framework is made possible by digital internet conventions generally prescribed by the W3C. If any layout does not appear as it should, it is very likely that it does not conform to standard design principles, or that those standards conflict with standard layout elements. Current knowledge of standards is essential to effective hybrid design. The earliest web pages used fixed layouts without exception. In many business pages fixed layouts are preferred today as they easily contain static tabled information. Fixed layout enforces device display convention, as viewers must set their display to at least a certain width to easily view content. This width can include display of corporate logos, cautions, advertisements and any other target content. Design frameworks for fixed layout may need to include coding for multiple display devices. Hybrid design maintains most static content control, but is adapted to textual publishing, and for readers, to conventional (printed) display. Hybrid layouts are generally easy on the eye and are found on most sites that distribute traditional images and text to readers. For some sites, hybrid design makes an otherwise cold text column appear warm and balanced. A good example of hybrid layout is Wordpress, where liquid design is now optional, and movie and auditory media is stretching the envelope. Fluid design is useful where content is delivered to an 'unknown device' population. Appropriate liquid code displays images, text and spaces proportional to display size. Someone with a handheld can see view and interact with the same content as someone using a large desktop monitor. However, scaling of content for a variety of devices has more recently evolved with modern web browsers, allowing users to see the same layout across all devices.

LAYOUT CONCERNS

With the coming of numerous monitor sizes, "fluid" web sites are becoming less common. The result is that fluid layouts look "old" because they were typically used more in the early days of the internet. In dealing with font layout, even expressed as ems, a static core cannot be escaped and often anchors most page content. However, as new standards are adopted by device manufacturers, viewers notice a wider spectrum of content and a greater interaction between and through content. For the World Wide Web Consortium drawing up tomorrows layout conventions, new media types and methods are increasingly in the mix. It is a true double axiom that 'content is all about layout', and 'layout is all about content'. We could say that layout is what designers squeeze into available technology content is the culture manifested in the layout. "Space' is the envelope holding layout and content together. Space communicates style (layout appearance) to the target population. Understanding how to adapt space to this layout-content relationship is essential to web design. Every design's survivability depends on its sensitivity to emerging technology (within the cultures that its framework is servicing), and immediate acceptance depends on the layout or presentation of that content. On every page, no content is more susceptible to changes and variations in standards, than space. While the professional designer casually admits that 90% of design code is used to adapt space, most of his current work deploys spatial manipulations being used to actively reshape Internet communication. Conceptual barriers to adequate layout abound! Presently layout is challenged by conflicting convention that makes it impossible to fit liquid and hybrid layout to the bottom corners of a display. Simply put, display device manufactures use the top right and/or left corners to display content. For non-standard equipment, setting custom fixed layout to their device is still seen by some businesses as a means of increasing revenue, as they can sell a 'unique' display. This business approach, domainating the digital market at the end of the last century, is not so useful today. However, some would claim a decade behind schedule, CSS3 and HTML5 are finally taking the four penultimate display reference points seriously. A common misconception among designers is to assume their layout is liquid because initial space and text container widths are in percents. However, their 'liquid' framework, while adhering to focused conventions, failed to manage graphic content. A subsequent edit placing a large image on the page, destroys the page appearance. When managing a design framework, it is critical that layout address content, convention and user interaction.

THE FUTURE SCOPE of Using General Purpose Software By Sid Williams III
General purpose software normally refers to the types of software used by computer operators to perform simple tasks, including writing, data recording and presentations. This software is some of the most commonly used software as it performs a variety of tasks, making it very beneficial to the user. SpreadSheet Software Spreadsheet software provides users with the ability to perform a variety of tasks with data, allowing users to keep track of data, perform calculations and remain organized when attempting to store information. An example of spreadsheet software is Microsoft Excel.

The software consists of cells arranged in rows and columns in which the user can manually enter data, including symbols, fractions and special characters. The user can format and analyze the entered data in different ways, such as shading and un-shading cells, using formatting features, hiding and un-hiding rows and columns and creating tables based off of the data. Word Processors Word processor software provides its users the opportunity to write efficiently and effectively with many options to format the document. Microsoft Word is one of the most common general purpose word processors; the software provides users with a ton of editing and formatting options; for example, they can find or replace text, analyze word counts, automatically insert symbols, set an address for hyperlinks, change fonts and insert images. Word processors also offer users the opportunity to save a document in many different file formats, which means that it is compatible with many other programs. Presentation Software You can use presentation program software for displaying information, usually in the form of a slide show. These are very common for formal meetings, including business and school presentations. One of the most widely used programs for making slide show presentations is Microsoft PowerPoint. Some of the presentation creation options offered by the software include adding captions to pictures, inserting action buttons, adding a photo album and adding text to slides. The overall goal of PowerPoint presentations is to provide information, data, visuals and sometimes sound to relay a set of information

more efficiently. PowerPoint enables users to save files in a variety of formats, such as .pptx, .pptm, .pdf, .pot and .mhtml.

Internal Guide

Abhilasha Hanuwante

Group Members

Gayathri Tiwari and Sana Rathod