Abstract
Information Systems are complex systems; the development of the Information Systems according to the business needs is a very tedious and time consuming task. These business applications, whether designed to be performed as a single task or intended to be used company-wide, integrated system, must be designed specifically for the company’s unique culture, needs, objectives, and goals. Thus, the developing team must be very clear about the users, user needs, corporation goals, time frame, and financial resources allocated to the to the development project. While the Information Systems are to be using the most advanced development tools and methodology, it must be simple for the users to understand, comprehend, and use they should be capable of performing all the functions necessary to perform a tasks efficiently. While the software should be comprehensive and state of the art, it should not be unduly cumbersome. Careful attention must be given during the development process that the software system should be both functional and efficient; one must remember that an Information System is actually a combination of various software systems which are self-contained top perform specific activities on one hand and to be able to interact and perform effectively with the other software systems. Combined, these software systems become the Information System.
TopBackground
The operational computers came into being in 1940s which were very slow and had very limited memory capacity, thus the programs were written in the Assembly Language. Assembly language was very tedious, error prone and took a lot of time and effort. Some initial languages were developed like Plankakul, ENIAC Coding System, BINAC for UNIVAC. This was the time when each instruction set was developed specifically for a manufactures and could not be used on any machines of other manufactures.
The first three modern programming languages were developed in 1950s and 1960s interestingly enough are still in use today in more advanced shape and with additional features.
These languages are:
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FORTRAN (1955), the “FORmula TRANslator”, invented by John Backus et al.;
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LISP (1958), the “LISt Processor”, invented by John McCarthy et al.;
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COBOL (1959), the COmmon Business Oriented Language, created by the Short Range Committee, heavily influenced by Grace Hopper;
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ALGOL 60 and ALGOL 68, “ALGOrithmic Language” for Burroughs large systems.
See Appendix A, for the list of Language development after these initial languages.