Familiarize yourself with the basic terms of computer, server and graphic user interface.

Computers are everywhere

A computer is an electronic device that can receive information and perform a sequence of operations. Computers are everywhere, in our mobile phones, tablets as well as on our laptops and desktop computers.

Computers and Servers

A personal computer (or just “computer”) is designed for people’s tasks (eg. surfing the web, creating emails, publishing documents). The user is the person who is using the computer.

A server is designed for network tasks (eg. managing, storing, sending and processing data 24-hours a day).

Hardware are components that build up a computer (eg. the screen, the touchpad, the mouse etc.)

When computers receive information and perform a sequence of operations it follows a program which is a set of instructions that tell the computer what to do.

An application (or app) is a program or group of programs that is designed for the end user.

Software is simply refers to data stored on a computer and programs.

User-interface

A graphic user-interface is a system that makes operating a computer more efficient, self-explanatory and enjoyable for the user (ie. user-friendly). It’s most commonly referred to the use of windows, icons, menus and pointer.

Client-server model

There are cases when a personal computer will need to connect to a server and access information.

For instance, when we connect to the internet and browse the world wide web.

We may use an app called Google Chrome. Google Chrome is what we call a “web browser” but it is also known as client.

A client is an app used to communicate with a server.

Last modified: August 27, 2017