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I have worked in the computer world since the late 60's and programs have always been referred to as "programming", a "program", or "software". In the late 90's, when the media suddenly discovered personal computers and the Internet they began using the term "software program" as if that was somehow more correct.
To me and other old school computer people I've talked to it sounds like a nonsense redundancy. What's your opinion?
At first blush I agree. Just to be fair, let's consider counterexamples. A print driver is software; is it a program?
Actually it might be; I haven't messed with drivers in a while. But back in the '80s and '90s a WordPerfect print driver was not a program but a set of tables, of (say) escape sequences that were indexed so WP could look them up and issue them to the printer in order to generate bold, horizontal lines, page ejects, what-have you. Of course you could say that those escape sequences are programs to the printer, but I don't think of them that way, possibly excepting PCL for HP printers and maybe not even that. At the most, you might call them macros.
But nowadays print drivers are a little different. Or are they? As I say, I haven't delved into them in a while.
On another line, it occurs to me belatedly that there are non-software programs. You can buy them at baseball games, for example, and at the opera. Radio stations subscribe to them. We watch them on TV. Maybe the news people who talk about software programs are only trying to differentiate them from your church membership drive.
Computer device drivers are simply externally supplied program components used as a convenient way interface to diverse hardware/ software environments and avoid program bloat. The fact that they are generally not independently executed should not exclude them from the definitions of either "program", or "software".
Regardless, this is putting too fine a point on the discussion. Attempting to differentiate program/nonprogram staus of all the members of the software zoo would make a typical news media writer's head explode, not to mention putting their audience into a coma.
The real issue here is context. In the case of other "programs", i.e. TV or radio programs, a play program, educational program, etc, the clarifier refers to the context of usage and, most importantly, the two words are not interchangeable. Following this, "computer program" or " computer software" are both reasonable. Since the terms "program" and "software" are essentially interchangeable in a technology context I maintain using them together is a nonsensical redundancy.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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