Systems programming
System programming (or systems programming) is the activity of programming computer system software. The primary distinguishing characteristic of systems programming when compared to application programming is that application programming aims to produce software which provides services to the user directly (e.g. word processor), whereas systems programming aims to produce software and software platforms which provide services to other software, are performance constrained, or both (e.g. operating systems, computational science applications, game engines and AAA video games, industrial automation, and software as a service applications).[1]
System programming requires a great degree of hardware awareness. Its goal is to achieve efficient use of available resources, either because the software itself is performance critical (AAA video games) or because even small efficiency improvements directly transform into significant monetary savings for the service provider (cloud based word processors).
Overview
History
Originally systems programmers invariably wrote in assembly language. Experiments with hardware support in high level languages in the late 1960s led to such languages as PL/S, BLISS, BCPL, and extended ALGOL for Burroughs large systems. Forth also has applications as a systems language. In the 1980s, C became ubiquitous, aided by the growth of Unix. More recently a subset of C++ called Embedded C++ has seen some use, for instance it is used in the I/O Kit drivers of macOS.[2]
Alternate usage
For historical reasons, some organizations use the term systems programmer to describe a job function which would be more accurately termed systems administrator. This is particularly true in organizations whose computer resources have historically been dominated by mainframes, although the term is even used to describe job functions which do not involve mainframes. This usage arose because administration of IBM mainframes often involved the writing of custom assembler code (IBM's Basic Assembly Language (BAL)), which integrated with the operating system such as OS/MVS, DOS/VSE or VM/CMS. Indeed, some IBM software products had substantial code contributions from customer programming staff. This type of programming is progressively less common, but the term systems programmer is still the de facto job title for staff directly administering IBM mainframes.
See also
References
- ^ "Panel: Systems Programming in 2014 and Beyond". Microsoft. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
- ^ Apple Inc (14 August 2009). "I/O Kit Device Driver Design Guidelines". developer.apple.com. Apple Inc. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2014) |
