How To Make Software

1. How To Make Software Icons
2. How To Make Software Programs

Whenever you listen to the name software, one question comes in your mind, that is 'how software is made and how the software development process happens? So you will get all the solutions to your questions in this article.

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Now before going to software, first you have to understand what is the computer? Because all software is made to run on computers, so let's take a look at a computer.

Computer:
The computer is an electronic device that takes input process it and gives output.

To understand this computer let's take one example: Suppose you are creating a document using MS-word, here Ms-word is the software and we give input from the keyboard, after giving input computer process it and show output to the screen. Now you get an idea that how the computer takes input then process it and gives output but, for this specific task that is creating a document, we need software like MS-word.
So the conclusion is we need software to perform the task on the computer.

Software:
Software is a set of instructions instructing a computer to do specific tasks.

This set of instructions is also known as a program. These softwares which are running on the computer is in the form of binary code that is 1 and 0 which is an executable file as shown in the figure below.

As every task in the computer is done with the help of these programs the developer can change it as he wants by doing a program that's why a computer is also called a programmable machine.
Writing the software in the form of binary is impossible and tedious hence, the engineers made various programming languages like C, C++, JAVA, Python, etc. Sometimes two or more languages are used for making one particular software.

How software is made?
Any program is written using any language that is understandable for a human is called source code and after making this source code with the help of the compiling process is converted into executable file. Here is one example of a basic C program source code converting into software as shown in the figure below.

This simple program can be written by a developer in a reasonable amount of time however, professional software may involve hundreds of developers. A large software would be split up into hundreds or even thousands of files. one concept that allows them to do so is called revision control. So how it works?

As you can see in the above figure, all the source code for the software is stored on a server each developer stores a copy of these files on their machine. they can make changes to the server when they are ready. The server stores a detailed list of what files were changed? what those changes were and who submitted it. If any times the program gets into a bad state the developer can undo the changes until the software program is working correctly again.

Software developers work hard on their software but there are always a few problems with the code and we call these problems as a bugs. Even after a piece of software is released to the public, the software developers must continue to fix bugs and further improve the software. that is why software has updates or new versions that come out periodically.

The software can be created in two different ways: Proprietary, and Open source. These are explained as following below.

1. Proprietary:
   The software owned by a person or software company and sold to make money. The source code is not released to the public, only the software is released.
2. Open source:
   The software is free and anyone can access the source code. Open-source software owners get money through donations.

Types of Software:

1. System Software:
   Software that work for system or computers. Examples: OS, Drives, Firmwares etc. Firmware is a software which is permanently attached into hardware like the keyboard or TV remote etc.
2. Application Software:
   Software that works for User. Examples: MS-Word, Firefox, etc.

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GNU Make

GNU Make is a tool which controls the generation of executables and othernon-source files of a program from the program's source files.

Make gets its knowledge of how to build your program from a filecalled the makefile, which lists each of the non-source filesand how to compute it from other files. When you write a program, youshould write a makefile for it, so that it is possible to use Make tobuild and install the program.

Capabilities of Make

• Make enables the end user to build and install your packagewithout knowing the details of how that is done -- because thesedetails are recorded in the makefile that you supply.
• Make figures out automatically which files it needs to update,based on which source files have changed. It also automaticallydetermines the proper order for updating files, in case one non-sourcefile depends on another non-source file.

  As a result, if you change a few source files and then run Make, itdoes not need to recompile all of your program. It updates only thosenon-source files that depend directly or indirectly on the sourcefiles that you changed.

• Make is not limited to any particular language. For eachnon-source file in the program, the makefile specifies the shellcommands to compute it. These shell commands can run a compiler toproduce an object file, the linker to produce an executable,ar to update a library, or TeX or Makeinfo to formatdocumentation.
• Make is not limited to building a package. You can also use Maketo control installing or deinstalling a package, generate tags tables forit, or anything else you want to do often enough to make it worthwhile writing down how to do it.

Make Rules and Targets

A rule in the makefile tells Make how to execute a series ofcommands in order to build a target file from source files.It also specifies a list of dependencies of the target file.This list should include all files (whether source files or other targets)which are used as inputs to the commands in the rule.

Here is what a simple rule looks like:

When you run Make, you can specify particular targets to update;otherwise, Make updates the first target listed in the makefile. Ofcourse, any other target files needed as input for generating thesetargets must be updated first.

Make uses the makefile to figure out which target files ought to bebrought up to date, and then determines which of them actually need tobe updated. If a target file is newer than all of its dependencies,then it is already up to date, and it does not need to be regenerated.The other target files do need to be updated, but in the right order:each target file must be regenerated before it is used in regeneratingother targets.

Advantages of GNU Make

GNU Make has many powerful features for use in makefiles, beyond whatother Make versions have. It can also regenerate, use, and then deleteintermediate files which need not be saved.

Difference between us and uk keyboard macbook. GNU Make also has a few simple features that are very convenient. Forexample, the -o file option which says ``pretend thatsource file file has not changed, even though it has changed.'This is extremely useful when you add a new macro to a header file.Most versions of Make will assume they must therefore recompile all thesource files that use the header file; but GNU Make gives you a way toavoid the recompilation, in the case where you know your change to theheader file does not require it.

However, the most important difference between GNU Make and mostversions of Make is that GNU Make is free software.

Makefiles And Conventions

We have developed conventions for how to write Makefiles, which allGNU packages ought to follow. It is a good idea to follow theseconventions in your program even if you don't intend it to be GNUsoftware, so that users will be able to build your package justlike many other packages, and will not need to learn anything specialbefore doing so.

These conventions are found in the chapter``Makefile conventions' (147 kcharacters) of the GNU CodingStandards (147 k characters).

Downloading Make

Makecan be found on the main GNU ftp server:http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/(via HTTP) andftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/(via FTP). It can also be foundon the GNU mirrors;pleaseusea mirror if possible.

Documentation

Documentation forMakeis available online, asis documentation for most GNU software. You mayalso find more information aboutMakeby runninginfo makeorman make,or by looking at/usr/share/doc/make/,/usr/local/doc/make/,or similar directories on your system. A brief summary is available byrunning make --help.

Mailing lists

Makehas the following mailing lists:

• bug-makeis used to discuss most aspects ofMake,including development and enhancement requests, as well as bug reports.
• help-make isfor general user help and discussion.

Announcements aboutMakeand most other GNU software are made oninfo-gnu(archive).

Security reports that should not be made immediately public can besent directly to the maintainer. If there is no response to an urgentissue, you can escalate to the generalsecuritymailing list for advice.

Getting involved

Development ofMake,and GNU in general, is a volunteer effort, and you can contribute. Forinformation, please read How to help GNU. If you'dlike to get involved, it's a good idea to join the discussion mailinglist (see above).

How To Make Software Icons

Test releases

Trying the latest test release (when available) is alwaysappreciated. Test releases ofMakecan be found athttp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/make/(via HTTP) andftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/make/(via FTP).

Development

For development sources, issue trackers, and otherinformation, please see theMakeproject pageat savannah.gnu.org.

Translating Make

To translateMake'smessages into other languages, please see the Translation Projectpage forMake.If you have a new translation of the message strings,or updates to the existing strings, please have the changes made in thisrepository. Only translations from this site will be incorporated intoMake.For more information, see the TranslationProject.

Maintainer

Makeis currently being maintained byPaul Smith.Please use the mailing lists for contact.

Licensing

How To Make Software Programs

Makeis free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under theterms of the GNU General Public License as published by the FreeSoftware Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at youroption) any later version.