User software - Definition and Overview

User software is computer software that is tailored for a specific user or users, rather than the general public.

Examples

Some examples of user software are:

Customized programs 

People write spreadsheet templates, word processor macros, and custom shell scripts to backup project files. These programs tailor general purpose applications to meet specific user needs.

Small programs 

Businessmen, engineers, and scientists write simulations to demonstrate or test specific theories, often in Visual Basic.

Animation scripts 

Graphic artists write scripts that describe characters and envirnoments and how the characters move to produce the intended animation.

Configuration files 

Configuration files blur the lines between programs and data, but many configuration files can be interpreted as programs. For example, email filters are sequenced lists of criteria and actions to take.

Evolution

Generally, the user-written software genre consists of small programs, that are designed to accomplish or test one thing. These simulations and scripts usually focus on the specific goals of the writer, and lack the polish and generality of commercial applications. User-written programs usually have a short life-span.

Occasionally, small user-written programs evolve into enormous applications. When user programs are generalized to meet the needs of many users, and get spit and polish, they evolve into self-standing applications. Some engineering and science simulations have grown to be millions of lines of code. Some personal business spreadsheets have grown into important corporate-wide applications. The World wide web began as a personal project to publish physics papers on the Internet, and grew to become the largest software project in the world. As user-written programs evolve and become more important, professional software engineers take over many development responsibilities.

Demographics

Estimates range from 2 to 25 times as many users who write software as there are professional programmers and software engineers.

See also

• Software engineering
• List of software engineering topics