What a software is made up of

Introduction

Today you are going to discover how a software works and some of the different layers that makes it to be functional

I am going to use a practical real world example to bring you on board and to also give you an in depth understanding.

Inter dependency

First of all lets get to know what inter-dependency is.

Inter-dependency is a relationship between one or multiple parties that mutually depend on each for survival.

This means that each party depends on each other for survival,

meaning that one party has something unique that the other party doesn’t have.

The parties involved here have unique features that aid for one another’s survival.

When one fails to work there might be delays in the entire system.

therefore both parties here in need one another to fulfill their needs, when one fails it might be difficult for one to fulfill their need, each party has a special role to play.

The act of mutually benefiting from one another happens in our day to day life.

For example we as human beings mutually depend on each other for survival, we need each other to mutually survive to our fittest.

There is also the act of inter dependency in business field

• customers need sellers to buy their goods from
• sellers need customers to sell their goods to
• when one party fails the other party fails since there is a strong bond between the two

Example

An example of inter-dependency occurs in a human body.

We have the different body parts that unitedly work together to make the body function very well.

The joint contract and inter coordination in the body parts births out a well functioning body.

unity is power

When two or more parties come together great things do happen,

so as when your body parts comes together and communicate with each other great thing do happen in our body without our knowledge.

It is the communication and the cooperation that brings about a well functioning body.

Lets have a look of how the human body functions :

Am not an expert in explaining the functioning of the human body so you will bear with me.

The function of the different parts include:

• legs – walking
• hands – touching and holding objects.
• eyes – seeing.
• mouth – talking
• brain – controls the whole body
• nose – smell

Imagine one of your body part fails to function well, how will the entire system of your body feel?Think about it

NOTE that For the act of inter-dependency to take place:

there must be some joint communication between the parties involved.

Therefore communication is vital for the parties to mutually benefit from each other. Even in the software engineering world there is the act of inter-dependency.

We have the layers that mutually depend on each other in case one fails there will be a breakage in the software system

A web software consists of layers that inter coordinate with each other to process, retrieve and store data,

and the data storing securely where it will be retrieved at any moment.

The layers include

1 . User Interface(UI) –

In a software the user interface is the front end view of the software and its the first thing a user meets when he/she interacts with a software.

At some point in other definitions; its how a human being will interact with a computer,website or a software device.

A user interface facilitates the interaction between a user and a program.

User interfaces are usually attached to the users of a program,

An example of a user interface includes;

• mouse
• keybord
• monitor

all these forms a connection between the user and the computers back-end

another instance is when one wants to fill an online form,

one will need a user interface presented to him / her in the web to fill the form and the data sent to the back end

The interface here is the form, forming a connection between the user and the back end service

In other words this is a representation how the data is presented to the users read more

2 . Logic –

In a software the logic represents how data is processed

This is the program flow of how data will be processed from the data base to the user in the user interface,

it represents the working of data in a program and how the program components inter coordinate with each other

The logic in a program

• Checks the input
• decides on the output to be displayed

For example the logic in a program that decides hide the date of births of individual users of a site to the public.

The act of hiding the date of birth is the logic and how the program works.

In the input the user will fill in his or her date of birth but in the output the public wont see the date of births as in the input,

but only the user in his/her personal profile.

it represents the data to present to the user and the one not to present to the user, Written by the programmer read more

3 . API –

An API stands for Application Program Interface.

This is an interface between the front end and the back end,

An API allows two soft wares to communicate to each other.

An API uses the programming logic to facilitate the communication in between the software.

In an API there is a defined set of guidelines and rules that enable programs communicate with each other, see each other data and use them.

APIs enable program communicate with each other products and services.

For one to use each others services and products.

• one sends a request to the third party API to access the resource
• The API receives the request
• The request is processed
• The API transfers data

An example of an API is.

• the pay pal – used in the eCommerce integration into the website to allow for payments of goods and services
• the weather API used to view in the weather conditions from different places
• the covid-19 tracker used view in the covid-10 infection in the different countries in the world

To shorten this: it is a representation of how data exchange takes place between the back end and front end read more

4 . Database –

This is an interface of organised collections for storing data for easier re-trivial,

The organisation of data in the database comprises of

• rows
• columns
• These rows and columns forms different tables for easier querying and re trivial

Traditionally we used to have files stored in cabinets used to hold information,

but currently we have the different types of databases used for keeping information for easier retrivial

read more about databases.

5 . Hosting –

This is a representation of where data storing and placement takes place in the web for live service.

Hosting allows a web to be posted live on the internet for online viewership.

Hosting caters for the storage of the files in the servers the files may include the codes,images,videos etc.

its a place for file uploading from the local storage in the computer to the web hosting server.

Hosting may also be done locally or live on the web

Conclusion

From the content above we realize that the software layers also depend on each other to function well.

When one fails the whole software crushes.

Erik Erikson