COMSATS Institute of Information Technology

(Virtual Campus)

Discipline: BS (CS)
Course Code: CSC322
Name: Muhammad Usman
Registration #: SP15BSCS067
Date: 16-Mar-2018

Assignment No. 1
 Question No. 1
What do you understand how operating system helps an operator, and if there
no operating system, how you will operate your system?
Solution:

In any computer or mobile device, the operating system can be termed as the back bone when it
comes to software. This is because it has to be there before other programs can be run. Like the
name suggests, an operating system can be simply defined as the system that helps devices to
operate effectively in a computer or mobile phone. In the early days of computing, the term
“operating system” was primarily used to mean a computer operating system. However, with
advancement of mobile phone technology, smart devices have come up with the capability to
handle almost as much as a computer can handle. These mobile devices also have their own
operating systems.
The main reason for having an operating system in place is to manage the device’s hardware and
software resources. In addition to this, the operating system provides the necessary common
services for installed programs to run. It works as an intermediary between the hardware and any
programs that are being run on the mobile device or computer. Some of the things that operating
systems help accomplish include managing inputs from users, sending output to the output devices,
management of storage spaces and control of peripheral devices. To better understand operating
systems, look at the use of computer resources as a busy intersection. Things can get very messy
if the intersection does not have traffic lights. Just like it is with the lights, an OS helps ensure that
different users and programs access the available computing resources in an efficient manner.
Without an operating system, every program will need a means to handle all computer components
and hardware. This means that it will need a method to accept user inputs using keyboards and
mouse, to print documents, to read and write on storage devices, to keep track of time, to send
output to the screen and even to communicate across a network. This would cause every single
program to be very extensive and heavy.

Since the very first operating system was made, operating systems have kept evolving with time
to accommodate more and more sophisticated tasks. There are different types of operating systems
available in markets as we’re going to describe these names only.
• Batch Operating System
• Multiprogramming Operating System
• Time Sharing Operating System
• Distributed Operating Systems
• Network Operating System
• Real-Time Operating Systems

The operating system acts as an interface between the hardware and the programs requesting I/O.
It is the most fundamental of all system software programs.
Responsibilities of the OS include:
Hiding the complexities of hardware from the user.
Managing between the hardware's resources which include the processors, memory, data storage
and I/O devices.
Handling "interrupts" generated by the I/O controllers.
Sharing of I/O between many programs using the CPU.

The User Interface is the interaction between the User and the Machine, letting the user send
commands with the expected results. Two forms of the Interface User are the Command Line
Interface and the Graphical User interface.

Shell OR Command Line Interface (CLI)

The more primitive User Interface, the user would type in a line of command or a single word
followed by pressing the Return key. The computer then willingly follows that exact command,
informing the user of its progress. For example, the user may want to type in the command to print
a document. The user will type the statement Print, then the name of the Printer and finally the
name of the file to be printed:
print [/d:Printer] [Drive:][Path] Filename "[ ...]"
Pros
CLIs can run on simple hardware with limited resources.
Some commands may be simpler to perform in a CLI than in a GUI.
Cons
Learning the commands may make it not suitable for a new user.
Some commands may be harder to perform in a CLI than in a GUI.

Graphical User Interface (GUI)

The GUI is made up of boxes or Windows which will display as an array of usually colorful tiny
blocks called Pixels, and a group of pixels is a called an image. The maximum number of colors
that can be used are called the Graphics. This User interface will display a Main window (also
known as the Desktop) which then can be accompanied by more windows. GUI is the most
common of the User interfaces, and the most user friendly, made up of event driven software. This
type of UI is best for users lacking in computer coding skills, since GUI only needs you to make
use of the mouse's events. There are still some people who prefer the use of a Command Line
Interface to a Graphical User Interface.
Pros
Simple and intuitive for new users
Some commands may be simpler to perform in a GUI than in a CLI
Cons
GUIs require system resources and more complex hardware than CLIs
Some commands may be harder to perform in a GUI than in a CLI
If an operating system does all the things we know it does, it seems downright impossible for a
computer to exist without one.
In case of no operating system you have to program the processor directly using a language it
understands. This doesn't mean the CPU only, but others as well, like graphics card processors,
sound card processors, etc. Each processor has some kind of basic language it can understand
called an instruction set. Instruction sets vary between processor models and consist of memory
addressing, flow control, logic and arithmetic instructions. Higher level operations are made up
from these basic instructions. The code written using instruction sets is called a machine code.
From there you get to assembly languages, which are again specific for a given processor
architecture and usually map strongly to processor instructions. These make writing the code easier
for humans and are already considered programming languages, albeit low-level. Assembly code
gets translated to machine using an assembler. So, these two are what you need to know to start
programming computers directly. Learn the instruction set and assembly language of the specific
processors at hand and how to build meaningful operations using these basic instructions. You can
build some complex stuff using an assembly alone, including graphics programs.
From there it starts to get wrapped up in layers, all of which provide abstractions and APIs over
the lower level: higher level languages, drivers, kernels, OSs and frameworks all the way up to
client applications. All of this higher-level code translates to machine code in the end,
using compilers and interpreters, so that the processor can understand what to do.
In reality, the earliest computers didn't have operating systems; they were huge machines tasked
with one program at a time. For that reason, they didn't really need operating systems. In fact, the
earliest computers required a user to physically connect and disconnect wires from a plug board to
retrieve computations. But if you don't have an operating system, can you make your computer do
anything?
Yes. But you have a lot of work to do. Without an operating system using and enforcing a standard,
systematic approach to running the computer, you're put in the position of writing code (or
programs) that must tell the computer exactly what to do. So, if you want to type up a document
in a word processing program, you'd have to create from scratch code that tells your computer to
respond to each character pressed on your keyboard. Then you'd have to write a code that told the
computer how those responses must translate to a screen. You'd have to tell your computer how to
draw the character you want! Think of every single option or possibility your word processing
program has. You'd have to write code for every single one of those directly onto your hard drive.
Let's go back to our general contractor analogy. If we're building a house, we'll want it to have
certain features like plumbing, electrical work and windows. In a computer, we also want features
like a program that creates documents, one that accesses the Internet and one that stores our photos.
Without an operating system, it's not just that your "carpenter" doesn't know where to hammer in
nails to a beam to get the room you want -- it's also that you have to forge the hammers, and you
have to create the nails.
An operating system provides a uniform set of screws, lumber and any other material you need. It
can go back and forth between rooms so fast you didn't even know it left the one you were in. And
that's really important, because here's another thing: Remember how we were talking about the
operating system only being able to concentrate on one thing at a time? Well, without one, your
computer could run one program. You could create a document. You could save it. You could print
it. But you couldn't look at that document and keep a clock running on your desktop. If you don't
have an operating system, you're stuck doing one -- and only one -- process at a time.