system software

operating system Any software required to support the

production or execution of application programs but which is

not specific to any particular application.

System software typically includes an operating system to

control the execution of other programs; user environment

software such as a command-line interpreter, windowsystem, desktop; development tools for building other

programs such as assemblers, compilers, linkers,

libraries, interpreters, cross-reference generators,

version control, make; debugging, profiling and

monitoring tools; utility programs, e.g. for sorting,

printing, and editting.

Different people would classify some or all of the above

system software as part of the operating system while others

might say the operating system was just the kernel.

(1997-09-22)