SOME CALL IT SOFTWARE

[Music] purpose the making of music but the piano cannot do it alone it needs the genius of human creativity to achieve that purpose that creativity set down as notations on a page of Music communicates to The Pianist exactly what to perform anyone who understands the notations can follow the instructions borne in the mind of the composer and produce the music he intended to be heard surprisingly enough technology came to this art even before the 20th century dawned a special set of machine instructions communicated directly with the instrument the piano now called a player piano responded with music if we consider the player piano as Hardware the instructions on the piano roll are what some call software together they form a system for bringing music into being no matter how finely tuned the hardware may be it must rely on software instructions for its pattern of sound even in the early days of player piano technology the system remained under human control people told it what to do by changing the piano role and the piano responded by performing many different tasks Tempo and Melody might change but the flow of music went on just as the revolving perforations of the piano roll trigger the actions of the keyboard the punched card tells today's electronic Hardware what should be done the patterns of holes in the card represent different numbers letters and symbols [Music] this input which a computer must have to perform can also be entered by paper tape or Magnetic Tape or can even be typed in however entered the set of instructions is known as a program without it even the most superbly built machine is little more than Furniture the people who summon the speed and power of a computer for problem solving are composers in the their own right they are called programmers men and women with the special skill of breaking a problem down into logical steps then devising a software solution in a language the computer can understand they can instruct a machine to add subtract multiply divide and do dozens of other actions in any desired sequence they can cause it to compare sort or store any data needed for the job at [Music] hand now let's see how programmers prepare the software to solve one of the worst headaches of a major city traffic [Music] [Applause] congestion wonder why they call it software when it's so hard to prep pair our assignment come up with a program to improve the traffic flow on two of New York City's major arteries before we can put anything down on paper we have to understand the problem get to know every aspect of it an experienced City traffic engineer is with us from the start together we begin to design a plan for putting traffic control Solutions into machine language [Music] the first thing to do is check out traffic programs already prepared for other locations that calls for a visit to a software Library maybe only a few programs stored on its cards tapes and discs will help get us started but we can't afford to miss any bets at this stage of the game the print out from these programs is useful permit we can check any similarities with our own problem meanwhile our team is growing in numbers and in ideas with a problem of this size we have lots of homework to do some of a top sign courtesy of the city we see it all bumper to bumper traffic a stalled truck other lanes moving normally what we're after is to find out why some roads function and others CL fog up we're getting a bird's eyee view of trouble spots actual and potential from up here anyone can see why it takes so long to get across a bridge in this [Music] city the most critical problem is the timing of traffic lights we have to make them responsive to the flow of traffic to do that we'll need sensing devices they'll count the passing cars and relay the information to the computer control center then the computer can evaluate the situation and pick the best possible sequence of traffic light [Music] changes we're ready now for flow charting here's where we diagram each logical step needed to solve our problem we apply all we've learned about traffic patterns the system of Lights Peak and slack periods all the realities the road which must now be translated into a software program we use symbols and words as the basis of our machine instructions their aim is to help the computer choose the best way to keep traffic moving at any given moment the flowchart is the blueprint for our final program so we work hard on it at last it's ready to be coded changed into instructions the computer can follow while our program is run on the computer we de bug it to get rid of those flaws we hadn't seen [Music] before even a bug-free program is no cause to relax it has to prove itself in a real life situation this is when we focus on the total traffic picture and we have to expect the unexpected things like a double parkk car or an accident affecting the flow of vehicles we may have a software package but we have to keep juggling the cont contents of it finally we have it a system for switching lights on and off to react to the flow of traffic at the heart of the system are those sensing devices they transmit a count of passing cars to the traffic control center we've got a lighted display map too it helps show how those knots of traffic are being [Music] unraveled software and traffic input are doing their jobs and now it's up to the hardware the computer analyzes the information instantly selects the best sequence of lights then transmits its commands to the control boxes along our traffic routes it also helps provide an up to the minute profile of any trouble spot [Music] finally that day arrives when driving on the two arteries assigned to us is less of a battle and the way to and from work is an easier one for many a traveler we've come a long way through software and teamwork it hasn't been easy but in these days what [Applause] [Music] is the beauty of a well-conceived program like a piece of music is that it wears well it can be used again and again without becoming [Music] obsolete software travels well too a program for controlling traffic in a city like New York can help develop solutions for Rio Montreal London Tokyo or any other City even though it may be halfway around the world and with many problems all it own beyond all this a software package can lend itself to solving many different problems even though they may be far removed from the original application all that is necessary is that their mathematical nature be similar software created to improve the output of an oil refinery might be adapted for a study of air pollution or altered still more to find the optimum fish population for a given habitat and even indicate the best way to catch them software libraries all over the world are storehouses of such [Music] Solutions some call It software The Logical and precise path to the solution of a problem an exercise in achieving Harmon Harmony [Music]