VePi Newsletters  

The micro­computers (PC) Div.   The applications section    Number:3 

Desktop publishing software:

Desktop publishing software is a software that is used to mix text, figures, drawings, diagrams easily
for the purpose of producing a master for a commercial document, like a brochure, a panphlet, a
newsletter,..etc. There are certain word processing packages that offer this desktop publishing features
as part of the word processing software. The elements that may be
found in a word processing software with additional menu or icons (push buttons) elements for the
desktop publishing capabilities are: DRAW, DRAW A LINE, AUTOSHAPES, RECTANGLE, ELIPSE,
WORDART, FILLCOLOUR, LINE COLOUR, FONT COLOUR, LINE STYLE, DASH STYLE,
TEXT BOX and SHADOW. The main menu elements of a desktop publishing software are: FILE,
EDIT, PAGE, TEXT, LINE, STYLE, OPTIONS. The FILE menu element will have the following sub-
elements:New, Open, Exit, Save, SaveAs, AutoSave, Art & Borders, Import Picture, Import Text,
Printer Setup, Print. The Edit menu will have the following subelements: Undo,Cut, Copy, Paste, Paste
Format, Clear, Insert Object, Character Map. The Page menu element may have the following sub-
elements: Views, Layout tools, Display Snapping, Frame, Setup, Page Setup, Size, Orientation. The
Text menu element
have the following underneath it: Character (Font style, Size, Width, Colour, Shading), Spacing, Align,
Leading, Tracking, Insert. The Line menu subelements are: Type, Weight, Colour, Shading, Corners,
Fill (Colour, Shading), Picture (Colour, Shading). The Style menu may have: Apply, Update, Edit,
Merge, Edit Colours, Text/Graphics/Frame defaults, Save Style.

The menu items on a desktop publishing software package may have in addition to what is given in
Level I, the following: Preferences, Wrap settings, Text outflow, Reflow and Font & Pictures. The
submenu File/New starts a new publication file, /Open opens an existing publication file or template (a
template can be created or opened to establish a starting setup for a new publication, for one or
several aspects of the publication, including layout content, styles & colour palette), /Exit is the same
as clicking twice on the Window close icon, the user will be given the option to save his work before
closing the file and exiting the application program), /Save will allow the user to save the file under the
name shown in the title bar, /Saveas saves the current file (publication), as a file or as a template, under
the name the user gives in the dialog box, /Autosave saves a hidden, backup, file of the current
publication at time intervals specified by the user, /Art & borders the user to access the available art
files included with the application program, /Import picture imports an image into the publication,
/Import text imports a word processor text file into the publication, /Printer setup allows the user to
select the printer, paper size & orientation,/Print allows the user to select the portion of the publication
to be printed & how to be printed. The submenu Edit/Undo undoes the most recent changes made to
objects, /Cut deletes (cuts) the selected object & copies it to the clipboard, /Copy copies the selected
object from the current working page to the clipboard, /Paste pastes a copy of whatever object is in the
clipboard into the current file (working area), /Paste format changes the properties of the currently
selected object to match as best possible those of the last object cut or copied to the clipboard from the
application program, /Clear deletes (clears) the selected object or group of objects from the workpage,
/Insert object allows the user to select the type of object he requires from the displayed list of OLE
objects, /Character map which allows the user to visually select the special characters that are not
marked on the keyboard. The submenu Page/ Views sets the current zoom level to that specified on the
menu, /Layout displays a dialog to control the use of the application program page layout aids which
are frames, rulers, guides that assist accurate layout of the document, /Display lists the application
layout aids & shows the ones that are curently displayed, /Snapping turns this feature on or off, /Frame
setup displays a dialog bax that enables the control of the selected frame settings, /Page setup displays a
dialog box combining the application page properties(page size,margins,number of columns &
orientation,wide i.e. landscape vs. tall ie portrait), /Size displays the most common page sizes,
/Orientation allows the user to select between wide & tall page orientation. The submenu Text
/Character allows the user to select the font name, font style (bold, italic,.), case (upper, lower..etc.),
size in points (1 inch=72 points), text colour, tint
fill, pattern & effects (strikeout, underline, outline..etc).

Under the GRAPHICS menu item the user may find the following: Line which displays a dialog box
combining all the line (previously selected) properties the properties that can be set through this dialog
are type, weight, corners, tint, colour & pattern, certain properties can be set through the available
submenu items directly; Fill displays a dialog box combining all the fill properties (these properties
can also be set via submenu items): pattern, tint colour & shading (pattern, colour & tint), colour & tint
adjust fill colour; Picture displays a dialog box combining all the picture & object linking and
embedding (automation) properties, these properties can also be set via submenus colour & shading.
Under the STYLES menu, the following may be found (which allows the creation, editing &
application of styles, changing the colour palette & setting object default values, application programs
usually allows the user to create two libraries of named styles: one for Text and one for other Graphics
items): Apply which allows the user to apply the named style to the current object or all objects with
the current style; Edit graphic style allows the user to remove, update, add styles to the available styles
choices; Merge allows the user to merge styles; Edit colours allows the user to remove, change & add
colours to the available choices of colours for the text and graphics objects; Text/Graphics/Frame
default resets these properties
of the highlighted objects back to the default levels; Save styles saves the styles of text, graphics &
colours created during this session permanently with other settings. Under the OPTIONS, the user
may find the following: Preferences displays the preferences dialog box to set the screen & ruler
options i.e. horizontal & vertical units, change bar, scroll bar, tool bar & statusbar, rotated & unrotated
pictures, metafiles on clipboard & use exact colours; Wrap settings displays a dialog box to control text
wrap values for the selected objects; Text outflow switches the outflow of a text in a stream on or off;
Reflow story if the user is working with text outflow was turned off, the user selects this command to
flow the content of the document; Fonts & pictures displays a dialog box that lists the fonts & pictures
used in the application; Save settings, usually when the application starts up it reads the configuration
information (which controls certain options) from the disk. The user can change any of these details
once the application has started. If the user would like to permanently save the settings then he has to
make the changes and then select Save settings. The following are saved: autosave value (from
File/Autosave), current page setup (from Page/ Page setup), layout tools (from Page/Layout tools),
cleanup options (by double clicking on cleanup button on the status bar), position of floating toolbox &
change bar (by pointing to the title bar using the mouse and then dragging them to the user's preferred
positions) and finally other prefernces (from Options/Preferences).

Presentation software:
A presentation software is a slide show presentation on the personal computer. The presentation is put
on electronic slides (screens) on the PC. All the diagrams, graphs and animation are included in each of
the screens (slides). At the time of presentation, each screen is displayed on the monitor one by one
with full control of the speed of the screen changing and sequence in the hands of the presenter. Other
presentation related items that can be produced using this type of packages are: speakers notes and
handouts. There are a few commercially available packages on the market. The main menu elements
that may
appear in the menu portion of the screen are: FILE, EDIT, VIEW, OPTIONS, DESIGN, OBJECTS,
GRAPH, SHOWTIME, INSERT, FORMAT, TOOLS, SLIDE. The File menu may have the following
sub-elements: New, Open, Save, SaveAs, Merge (Presentation, Template, Styles, Colours), Import
Picture, Print, Print Setup.
The Edit menu item may have: Undo, Restore, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, Paste link, Insert New Object.
The View mwenu item may have: Slide, Outline, Speaker Notes, Slide Sorter, Sheet, New Slide, Go To
Slide, Actual Size, Fit in Window, Zoom in, Zoom out, Scale, Refresh Screen, View Black & White.
The Design menu item may have: Choose Design, Choose Template, Slide SetUp, Notes/
Handouts Setup, Choose Colour Palette, New/Modify Colour Palette, Record Style, Notes/Handouts
Layout, Slides per Handout. The Options may have: Control Bar, Message Bar, Tool Bar, Calour Bar,
Outline Bar, Rulers, Guides, Snap to Guide/ruler. To Be Continued in the next level (level II)

The submenu items of Options menu element given in Level I can have the additional ones:
Presentation preferences & Ruler settings. The Design menu item may have the folowing subitems:
Choose design, Choose template, Slide+ setup, Notes/Handouts, Setups, Choose olour palette,
New/Modify, Record style, Notes layout, Handouts layout & Slides/handouts. The Objects menu item
may have the following underneath it: Graphic effect, Character, Paragraph, Blend, Duplicate, Layer,
Lines, Align/attach, Transform, Tool palette & Convert to curves. The graph menu item may have as
subitems the following: New, Modify, Gallery, Format, Update & Replot graph. The Show time may
have Slide show, Show current slide, New/Modify, Slide jump, Remove slide jumo & Slide show
transitions. The File/New submenu clears out the current presentation & starts a new one (the user is
warned if there are any unsaved changes in the current presentation), /Open opens a new presentation
file (the user is warned if there are any unsaved changes in the current presentation), /Save saves the
current presentation file with the same name (in the title bar), Save as saves the current presentation
with a new name or different options, /Merge presentation allows the user to merge another
presentation into the current presentation (appending the current one), /Merge template replaces the
current templates with templates from another presentation or design file or adds the templates from
another presentation to the list of templates in the current
presentation. To be continued in the next Level (Level III).

As a continuation to level II, under the FILE menu item, the user may find (in addition to what is given
in level II) the following: Merge styles which adds the styles from another presentation or design file to
the list of styles in the current presentation; Merge colours which adds the colour palettes from another
presentation or design file to the list of colour palettes in the current presentation; Import this command
performs different actions depending on the current view (there are many possible views in a
presentation program: the normal view is Slide View, Template View is similar to Slide View but
allows the user to edit the Slide Template, Outline View shows the files & bullet items (text) in the
entire presentation, Speakers Note View shows the notes associated with a slide along with a small
version of the slide, Sorter View shows small pictures of all or many of the slides & allows the user to
sort them, Sheet View is a row & column presentation of the used to produce the graphs in the
presentation); Print prints the current presentation according to the settings in the Design Slide setup
and File Print setup; Exit exits the application program, if there are any unsaved changes, the user is
warned (prompted) to allow the user to save the modified file before exiting. Under the EDIT menu
item, there may be: Undo undoes the last command; Restore reverses the effect of the last Undo
command; Copy it copies the selected items to the clipboard (without deleting them); Cut it deletes the
selected items as it copies them to the clipboard; Paste pastes the contents of the clipboard into the
current slide; Delete deletes the currently selected objects, text or sheet entries; Copy slide as picture
copies the current slide to the clipboard as an image; Paste link (usually there are 4 types of links the
user can create with a presentation application program: hot links - dynamic link to another running
application with real time updates, warm links - to spread sheet in a file on the hard drive, OLE
automation/embedded objects and linked objects it can create an OLE linked object from the
information in the clipboard setting up a DDE hot link to a running application); Insert new object
presents a dialog listing of the available OLE servers, the creation of the object will be embedded in the
presentation; Edit links changes the file to which the object is linked (on a linked OLE); Object it is
used to edit an embedded or linked OLE object; Select all selects all objects on the current slide; Select
all text selects all text objects on the current slide (and adds them to the list of currently selected
objects); Subselect allows the user to select the objects from a crowded area of the slide & also let him
select individual members of a group without having to ungroup the group; Find/Replace searches
through the text in the presentation looking for a specific word or phrase, the user can optionally
replace the found text with different text. Under the View menu, the user may find: Slide switches to
slide view (if it is not already the view) and allows the user to edit & create text & graphics objects in
this view; Outline switches the view to the outline view; Speaker notes displays the speaker note page
for the current slide; Slide sorter switches to the sorter view; sheet switches to data sheet view; Goto
slide selects a slide to display on the screen; New slide creates a new slide at the end of the
presentation; Actual size (this is a scale command) screen measurements match the actual size (when
printed); Fit in window (scale command) enlarges the view so that the entire slide just fits in the
window & center the slide in the window; Fit in world maximizes zoom out so that the entire slide &
pasteboard (the pasteboard is the area inside of the scroll bar and outside of the slide image) are
visible;Zoom in zooms in on the center of the screen thus magnifying the view of the slide (a little);
Zoom out zooms out from the center of the screen to get a larger view of the slide (redicing it in size);
View scale gives the following zooming factors options to the user: 50,200,400 or 800%; Refresh
screen redisplays the current slide using the current options as indicated by View/Draft Mode; Draft
mode in this mode, the objects are drawn on the screen) more quickly but at lower quality; Drawing
preferences let the the user sets the mode for the drawing of the graphic objects & text (usually there
are 4 modes: high or draft quality screen display and high or draft quality printed output); Black &
white preview shows a black & white preview of the slide on the screen. Under options there may be:
Control bar which turns the display of the control bar on or off; Message bar turns this bar on or off;
Tool palette turns the display of the tool palette on or off; Colour palette turns it on or off; Text ribbon
turns the text ribbon (appears only when the user is editing text on a slide with the text tool) on or off;
Outline bar turns on or off the outline bar that appears when the user enter the Outline View mode;
Ruler turns the display of the ruler on or off; Guides turns the display of the ruler guides (non-printing
guidelines that the user may overlay on a slide to help him lining-up the different objects) on or off;
Snap to ruler snaps the cursor to the nearest tick mark in the ruler (horizontal & vertical) when this
command is on; Snap to guides, while this option is on, snaps the cursor to the ruler guides whenever it
gets within a small distance from the guides; Ruler settings is used to set the measurement unit for the
rulers & the number of tick marks; Presentation preferences sets the various other preferences for either
the specific presentation or for the application program in general, these options are stored in the .INI
application software initialization file: Autoscroll at window edge, Autotitle
& template on new slide, undo levels, initial view, default design file; Update during drag when this
option is on, it updates all objects during move & stretch operations. Under the DESIGN menu item,
there may be: Choose design allows the user to choose a new design for the presentation (on an initial
design) for a new presentation (design files are stored on disks & contain a set templates & colour
schemes); Choose template attaches a template to the current slide; Slide setup allows the user to
change the dimensions of the slides in his presentation; Notes/handouts setup is used to change the size
or orientation of the pages used to print speaker's note & audience handouts; Choose colour palette
selects a different colour palette from the list of available ones; New/modify colour palette allows the
user to create new colour palletes or to modify existing ones; New/modify style allows the user to
create new styles or modify existing ones through the use of the dialog box which has the following
entries styles names, based on & attach style; Record style creates a style using the attributes from the
currently selected object (the first one selected, if more than one were selected); New/modify template
modifies an existing template, creates a new template or allows the user to only view a template; Notes
layout changes the appearance of the speaker notes pages; Handout layout changes the appearance of
the audience handout pages that are printed by File/Print menu choice; Slides handout sets the number
of slide miniatures that are to appear on each printed page when Handouts are selected from the
File/print dialog box. Under the OBJECTS, the user may find: Graphics effects sets colour pattern,
shadow & other options for graphics objects; Characters that sets the font for the currently selected
object; Paragraph sets the paragraph options (justification, indentation, line spacing & bullet character
options); Attach style which attaches a style to the selected objects; Blend which creates a number of
objects that are blends of 2 other objects (blend between position, size, colour & other attributes);
Clone which makes a copy of the selected object, all of the attributes are copied & the new object is
placed directly on top of the copied object; Duplicate makes a copy of the selected object & apply all of
the transforms operations to the new object that had been applied to the selected object since the last
clone choice; Layer adjusts the stacking order (drawing order) of overlapping objects; Lines affects the
appearance of line objects including curves & polygons; Align/ attach command is used to change the
anchor (primary position of an object) base of an object; Transform stretch is used to stretch an object
or a group of objects; Transform move is used to move an object or group of objects; Transform rotate
rotates the selected objects (usually lines including curves & polygons) and text can be rotated;
Transform skew shears the selected objects or obliques text (by the angle inputted by the user); visible
makes the selected objects visible; Invisible makes the selected objects invisible; Groups group
combines the selected objects into a group; Groups ungroup ungroups a group of objects; Groups
regroup regroups the last ungrouped group; Tool contains tools for creating objects such as rectangles,
ellipses, lines & curves; Convert to curves converts the selected objects to a collection of lines &
curves. Under the GRAPH menu, the user may find: New graph takes the user to the sheet view mode
to enable him create a new graph; Modify enters the user into the sheet view mode with the for the
currently selected graph highlighted (in the sheet) Gallery formats the currently selected graph using
the standard attribute choices listed in the gallery; Format command presents to the user a dialog box to
allow him choosing, from the among all of, the graph-related options & attributes; Update warm links
will update the warm links in the presentation; Replot graph will regenerate the currently selected
graph. Under the SHOWTIME menu item, the following commands may be available to the user to
choose from: Slide show allows the user to view his slides in order on the screen; Show current slide
shows only the current slide; New/modify slide jump allows the user to include a jump in his
presentation i.e. a jump is performed during a slide show when the user clicks on an object that has the
slide jump associated with it, the dialog box may may offer the user the following option jump to slide
number, jump to next slide, jump to previous slide, return to last jump & stop slide show; Remove slide
jump removes the slide jump capability from an object which was previously formatted as a slide
jump; Send object to overlay sets the overlay number for the selected object; Slide show transition
allows the user to specify different transitions & delays for each slide in a slide show or for each
overlay within a slide; Export runtime slide show exports the presentation to the hard disk with the
option selected by the user regarding the format of the file to be saved.
The internet:
The Internet is a set of computers, main, mini or personal (micro) connected with each other into a
network (local network) and through a communication medium all these local networks are
interconnected. Over 1.5 million computers are connected to the Internet. All the computers are
connected to each othe by communication media, thus rendered as one system. Such system
componenets (computers) can communicate with each other, sending e-mail, or retreiving information.
Presently, there are basically 2 packages available to the user in order to explore (surf) the Internet
(Global network). The menu elements are: FILE, EDIT, VIEW, GO, COMMUNICATOR,
FAVOURITES. the connection options to the Global network are: dedicated (a high speed direct link to
the Internet backbone to support and information exchange or high volume of multimedia applications)
or dial-up (is used when medium range of data/information volume is to be accesed, runs from the
workstation with the appropriate software through a modem over regular twisted telephone wire) or
shared access (dial-up connection to a shared line service). The connection to the Internet is obtained
through a service provider. The provider should be able to answer these questions: What is the total
customer base?, What is the business percentage? What is the size of the average business customer?
Which connection types are provided? What are the security options available? Is training available?
What is the cost of training? Surfing the net will provide exposure to engineering, news, medicine &
commercial information
The available commercial software packages that work with the Internet can have any of the following
capabilities: enable the user to access the wealth of information and network applications, the user can
access information from a variety of sources from the latest Web sites to corporate bases. They enable
the user to create rich HTML (the file format that is compatible with the Internet) e-mail with
embedded images. They, also, allow the user to encrypt and decrypt his messages for privacy purposes.
They allow the use of filters to automatically organize the incoming messages into folders. They
provide discussion forums that make it easy sharing information and creating a knowledge base that
people can share and access at any time. They allow the creation of document, with solutions for
editing and publishing online documents. They may support audio/video conferencing and other
collaboration tools. They also allow the user to subscribe and schedule automatic delivery of
information instead of manually downloading information. They may allow the users to manage time,
events and to-do lists, the users can schedule meeting with each other across the internet and the
corporate intranet using a standards based calendar meeting format. They give the system administrator
the capabilities: to centrally configure the communication software client preferences, downloads/
installs/ upgrades the comumunication software components and plug-ins, restricts downloadable
components to those authorized
by the administrator.
Computer network:
The merging of computer and communications resulted in creating computer networks which lead to
the creation of interconnected and distributed processing systems. Computer networks are simply
personal computers (main frame and mini computers), interconnected through the use of a
communication medium with themselves and other peripherals like printers, plotters, scanners
terminals and other servers. Each element will have a network interface card
that connects between the element ewg. PC andthe communication medium. The communication
software will have a method that would allow the PC to access the communication medium (network)
thus enabling it to send and receive (information) to and from other nodes (other elements on the
network).The other elements of a network, depending on the application of the network and where it
is installed, are: remote terminal units (RTU), numerical control machines (NC) programmable logic
controllers (PLC) and sensors. Computer networks can be classified into multiprocessor, long haul,
local area and high speed local networks. That parameters that differentiate between these different
types are
the rate in bits per second, the coverage distance in kilometers and the error rate. The local network can
be classifies according to its topology, to its medium acces control method, to the communication
media used in the system. The topology of a network may be any of the following: ring, bus/tree or
fiber
LAN. The medium access control method can be classified broadly into centralized or distributed, more
about networks in the next level.

The centralized medium access control for round robin technique is the polling method, for the
reservation is the dentralized reservation. On the other hand for the distributed medium access control
(MAC), the round robin technique there are the following methods: token (for bus & ring topologies),
delay scheduling & implicit token, for the reservation there is the distributed reservation and for the
contention technique there are: slotted ring, register insertion & carrier sense medium access control
with and without collision detect. The transmission media mostly used with computer networks are:
twisted pair (shielded or not), coaxial cable, optical fiber cable & line of sight (which includes infrared,
laser & microwave. Local area networks for personal
computers can be classified into: peer to peer systems, DOS-based systems, DOS emulating systems,
dedicated server & non-dedicated server. The LAN features are: file services, resource sharing, soft
fault tolerance, disk caching, transaction tracking system, security, remote access, bridging, special
servers, management tools, user communications, print spooling & print servers Round robin means
give everybody a turn. Each station in turn is given an opportunity to transmit the it has to send. In
each turn, the station will have a maximum amount of or time to transmit the. Stream traffic is
characterized by lengthy and fairly continuous transmissions. Examples are voice communication,
telemetery, bulk file transfer. Bursty traffic is characterizes by short, sporadic transmissions, for
example interactive terminal-host traffic. For stream traffic, reservation methods are most suitable. In
this technique, stations wishing to transmit reserves future slots (time given to the station to transmit
the it has) for an extended or indefinite period. For bursty traffic, contention methods are usually the
most applicable. No control method is exercised to determine which station (node, terminal) should
send the data and which one has to follow. All the stations contend for time in a way that can be rough
and cause collision between transmitted. The factors that affect the choice of the transmission
medium are: the topology of the network, the capacity (traffic to be supported), reliability (to meet the
availability requirements), types of supported (function of the applications), environment scope and
maintenance requirements. In peer-to-peer systems, any station can become a server that makes its
resources available to other workstations. Workstations can also become clients (receivers) allowing
them to access other workstations without sharing their own. A DOS emulating system is capable of
running DOS programs and responding to DOS commands but operates under another operating
system that has the multiuser operating system features. Dedicated server system acts as a server
handling requests from workstations and managing the file system. It cannot run any end user
programs. Non dedicated server system may offer all the features of a dedicated system, as well as the
capabilities to run the server as workstation. The first of the LAN features is file services, these services
are copying, archiving, protecting and is offered through the use of menu-assisted commands. Resource
sharing, in peer-to-peer systems this feature is available. With dedicated system shared devices like
drives and printers are located at the file server or at a special print server. To allow printers located at
workstations to be shared by other users, a special software has to be used. System fault tolerance
provides certain amount of network servivability when various components of the server fail. For
example mirror imaging of hard drive. Disk caching improves the hard disk speed by setting aside
system memory to hold the file locations. The system then searches memory instead of the disk when
looking for a file. Transaction tracking system (TTS) is used to protect bases from corruption. A
transaction is a change in a record or set of records. Security measures are used to protect of
information or the damaging due to lack of appropriate knowledge. A network will allow remote users
to access its file over telephone lines. Bridging allows an existing network to tie into a new network or
another existing one. Some systems allow application programs to run on dedicated servers rather on
workstation under certain conditions. The reason would be taking advantage of superior file, memory
and processing resources of a server. The network should have a set of utilities to allow the users view
the status of the network and evaluate the current performance level. The network will allow users to
send files over its connections.
Print spooling allows users to continue working after sending a file to be printed. A print server is a
computer dedicated to the task of servicing the network printers. The following questions have to be
answered before getting into a LAN project: What are the types of communicating devices to be
connected to the local area network to be installed? What are the properties of the to be transmitted
over the network i.e. rates & traffic, priority & acceptable delays? Is the use of tiered (more than one
level network) network acceptable? How are transmitted informatiom over the network will be divided
within a department, between divisions and through the whole organization? The acceptable network
will be standard or proprietary types are acceptable? What are the physical locations for all the devices
that constitute the LAN?
Are there any available communication medium within the facility & the degree of suitability to the
requirements of the LAN? The preferred topology considered for the project?Is there any need for
inter-networking devices (bridges, routers, gateways)? The transmission media to be used for the
different sections? The needed components to build the broadband (or the baseband) network? Fiber
links are considered for certain high traffic/speed sections? Is digital or anolog signaling preferred?
There will be any need to use line of sight communication medium? Is there any preference to the link
layer protocol/service? Is there any preference when it comes to MAC layer protocol/service? What
software will be used to run, manage and monitor the network? What type of server to be used
(dedicated vs. shared non-dedicated? Finally, a short word about performance of network. The analysis
process is different for packet switched (for LANs & high speed local networks) than for circuit
switched (digital switch & digital private branch exchange). There are 3 measures commonly used to
analyze the performance of networks: the delay that occurs between the time a packet or frame is ready
for transmission from a node and the completion of successful transmission, the throughput of the local
network (total rate of being transmitted between nodes), the utilization of the local network medium
(the fraction of total capacity being used). The main factors affecting the performance of a network are:
capacity, propagation delay, number of bits per frame, local network protocols, offered load & number
of stations. Circuit switched system uses synchronous time division multiplexing (TDM) on the other
hand packet switching uses asynchronous TDM. The analysis of the performance of circuit switched
systems depends on the degree of blocking (the probability that a connection request will be blocked
and the average delay per blocked queued calls (the average delay for a specific capacity). For non-
blocking switches the performance is not an issue. An interconnected set of networks from a user's
point of view may appear simply as a larger network. Each of the constituent networks retains its
identity, though special mechanisms are needed for communicating across multiple networks. Each of
the constituent networks is called subnetwork. A collection of communication networks interconnected
by bridges routers or gateways is termed Internet. A bridge is a device used to connect 2 LANs that use
identical LAN protocols. The bridge acts as an address filter picking up packets from 1 LAN that are
intended for a destination on another LAN and passing those packets on. The bridge does not modify
the contents of the packets. Routers are devices used to connect 2 networks that may or may not be
similar. The routers employ an internet protocol present in each router and each host of the network. A
gateway is a device used to connect 2 sets of computers that use 2 different communications
architectures. The gateway maps from an application on one computer to an application that is similar
in function but differs in detail on another computer. Open Systems interconnection is based on the
concept of cooperating distributed application. In an OSI model, a system is a computer plus software
plus attached peripherals. A distributed application is any activity that involves the exchange of
information between 2 open systems. The OSI model includes 7 layers: physical, link, network,
transport, session, presentation & application. The peer layers communicate by means of set of rules
(protocol). The key elements of a protocol are syntax (format, coding), semantics (control information
interpretation) & timing (sequence in which control events occur).
The specialized software packages:
Specialized software packages are programs that attempt to make easier (facilitate) the manual
operation in the various fields of life. Examples for such packages are: material requisition planning
(MRP), facility management (FM), computer aided design/drafting (CAD/D), computer aided
engineering (CAE) computer aided manufacturing (CAM), geographic information system (GIS),
automated maintenance (AM), commercial applications (accounting, payroll,...). There are quite a few
packages that are commercially available in each of the above mentioned types. These programs are
used in the different industrial and commercial applications. For example the CADD programs assist
the engineer and designer to perform the drafting and designing tasks on the PC. Each set of drawings
are saved into a project directory.Each drawing can be drawn on the different available layers per
drawing file.Certain checks and dimensioning can be performed automtically by the
software.Modifying or changing the drawing can
be done easily on the screen. These software packages can be used to produce electrical, mechanical or
civil drawings. If the organization using this package has a network (LAN), then more than one person
can acces the drawing to view, change (if have authority to change) and approve. The packages that
perform MRP functionality will allow the user to produce bills of material for the different projects, the
program will issue the purchase orders for the purchased items (based on previously enterd- maximum
and minimum) and the list of manufactured components to the shop.
The two applications that will be covered here briefly, that may use specialized software packages, are
Computer aided design & manufacturing (CADAM), and computer aided process and operation
planning for manufacturing. Computer aided drafting may have the following features: automatic
dimensioning for drawing refernce lines and dimensions, pattern filling including cross hatching, zoom
& pan to enlarge portions of a drawing for detailwork, machine support for a variety of
printers/plotters/high resolution graphics systems, availability of symbol libraries (as a separate
software or integral with the main software, including the ability of creation of symbols in the library),
the availability of different layers to give the user the option to choose swhich elements of the drawing
should be put on which layer (this makes possible to add or subtract any drawing element i.e. to switch
on or off any layer of the available layers to clarify the display or speed the redraw), for 3D (3
dimension) packages, in addition to what previously mentioned they may have the following features:
removing hidden lines, rotating an object to view it in any prespective, presenting an object in several
different prespective at simultaneously. Any drafting job can be considered to have the following main
elements: schematic drawings with symbols & interconnecting lines, physical drawings (dwgs) with
dimensionally correct geometry, analytical models with selected design information only, fabrication
details with fabrication & erection details, material control reports with written lists of materials
required by the design, fabrication reports with written instructions on how to fabricate the design.The
CAD/CAM system will integrate the functions of design, drafting, analysis, numerical control,
configuration control, management, and any other production activity that has to be automated. With
CAM, the user creates numerical control (NC) instructions to operate machine tools. The CAD
database can supply data which allows manufacturing to create the NC instructions. It can also be used
to program robots and supply factory management with other to control their manufacturing cycle.
Most of these packages that operate on personal computers will run under Windows operating and may
have menus similar to other programs (application software). Automating and customizing such
packages are possible through the use of the computer language with which the CAD program is
written, for example the LISP language can be used if the user is drafting/design in with AUTOCAD
software package. Automating process and operation planning in manufacturing i.e. the use of
computer aided process & operation planning software packages, is based on one of two approaches,
the variant and the generative. The variant approach is a computerized extension of the manual
approach of process planning. The operation
planning is considered a subset of process planning. The generative method may be considered as an
artificially intelligent computer system that had captured the logic and decision making ability of an
experienced process planner. With the first approach, the following features have to be available text
editing, high-speed printing & computer graphics capability. This approach uses the group technology
concepts of part families and standard plans. Group technology methods of classifying and coding are
used to segregate a company's part list into part families. Each part family has like parts having
attributes sufficiently common to prescribe a common manufacturing method for all of the parts in that
family.The standard plan is the common manufacturing method established for a specific part family.
For the second approach, the automatic generation of consistent repetitive process plans can be
accomplished with the use of predefined algorithms, decision tree logic, classification theory, key
words, mathematical models, manufacturing rule analysis and computerized base manipulation
algorithm. The process planning systems must produce the following: part coding & classification,
operation sequence, routing & workstations selection, economic analysis and documentation. Operation
planning (the specification of detailed parameters and conditions) extends from the process planning, as
previously mentioned. For machining processes, several generative operation planning modules can be
developed to perform the various analysis required: cutting tool selection, tool usage & cut selection,
cutting speed, feed rate selection. All machining operations are constrained by the limitations of the
machine tool, the cutting tool and the workpiece. An operation planning module can check machining
conditions against a reference set of constraints. One important function of operation planning is the
estimation of the cost and time required to perform the operation. Using mathematical models, once the
cutting tool, speeds, and feeds, depths of
cut, number of passes,..etc., the cost & time required to perform the operation can be estimated. The
last topic that will be covered here is the use of computers as an analysis tool for almost all disciplines
of engineering. The use of high level computer programming languages to write programs to solve
specific problems like in electrical power engineering: short circuit calculations, load flow studies,
transients analysis, per unit calculations, simulataneous equations solution, matrix manipulation, finite
element analysis reliability analysis for industrial or utility systems, stability analysis. In engineering
economics, programs can be written to compare the costs of the different projects of equal or unequal
duration, the cost of replacement vs. that of maintaining, break even analysis, profitability analysis.
Some of these programs can be put together in one package and offered commercially to the interested
parties that may use these application programs in their daily work routines. bases can be compiled for
the specific equipment or systems that are found in the different locations like factories, utilities,
commercial institutions,...etc. and can also be offered to the appropriate users. Training the user on
these software packages or any other subject or topic like live languages, computer programming,...etc.
can also be done using model programs on the personal computers.

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