Texas Instruments TI-99/4A - Page 178

CHAPTER 5
SOFTWARE
Regardless of how powerful your computer sys
tem may be, you will find that software is the
key to your gaining the greatest satisfaction
from your system. Every computer, from the
least expensive home computers to the large
mainframe computers used by major corpora
tions, must have a set of instructions to tell it
what to do.
There are two ways for you to give these in
structions to your TI-99/4A: you can buy soft
ware packages, or you can write your own
programs in Tl BASIC (thus creating your own
software). Pre-packaged software that you can
buy contains all of the steps your computer must
follow to perform a task—whether the task is
the planning of your family budget or communi
cating with another computer hundreds of miles
away The cost of such software can range from
a small investment (about $10 to $40 for many
home applications) to a large investment (hun
dreds of dollars for some business applications).
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