W

e are glad to present the second edition of the text book on the Computer Systems and Applications for Third Year B. Com students of University of Mumbai. This book is also useful for other computer courses like T.Y.B.Sc. (Applied Component), and F.Y.B.Sc. (Computer Science). Although India missed to capitalize on the industrial revolution in the nineteenth century, Indians have made their mark in the information revolution of today. Information technology holds the key to the prosperous India of tomorrow. Though the computer was invented for scientific computations, it is the thrust from business that provides the impetus for the phenomenal growth of information technology. The University of Mumbai has come out with a good syllabus to cater to the need of commerce, although we feel that the emphasis on statistical computation needs to be reduced.

A remarkable feature of the book is abundant practical exercises. The book is written keeping students’ needs in mind and a student can do self study from the book if she/he has access to a personal computer.  The topic on programming in C is covered by offering around 50 complete programs including all the programs listed in the syllabus. Common pitfalls in C are illustrated. We feel that we as teachers should concentrate on the discipline of programming. A knowledge of programming helps the user to make efficient use of computers. Commerce students can combine their knowledge of commerce with skills of programming to take a leap into e-commerce. We feel that, rather than concentrating on intricacies of syntax, we should concentrate on development of logic and programming skills right from the beginning.

In FoxPro we have provided several prototype business applications as stipulated in the syllabus. Since indexing is the heart of databases we feel that sorting of database should not be stressed in the course and examinations. We have added many solved exercises to write FoxPro commands.

In view of the importance of Internet, we have devoted a separate chapter to Internet, which covers the working of Internet in a lucid manner and also includes a glossary of Internet terms.

The working of computers has been made user-friendly with the advent of Windows operating systems and Microsoft Office. In the treatment of these topics, we have seen that the user grasps the basic principles underlying the packages. One of the most important skills to be acquired in computers is the skill to understand a new package by self-learning. We have explained how to use the Help feature of Microsoft Word and Excel effectively, which is the backbone for using any package successfully.

We would like to acknowledge the cooperation, patience, and understanding of our family members, without whose support the book would not have seen the light of the day.  It is a pleasant duty to thank Mrs. Bhavna  M. Tekwani for the fine job of DTP typesetting.

We thank the student community for the overwhelming response to the first edition of this book. We also thank Prof. (Mrs.) V. S. Deshpande, Head of Department, Sydenham College for her inspiration. We appreciate the favorable response given by Prof. Bhatt, Head, Dept of Computer Science, K. C. College,  Prof. Vaidyanathan (SIWS College), Prof. Sushil Kulkarni (Jai Hind College), and professors from the following colleges: Mithibai, St. Xavier’s, Ruia, H. R., and Elphinstone College We also thank Rakesh Rambhia of Chetana Publications for his cooperation. 

Suggestions from our respected colleagues and dear students regarding the improvements in the book are welcome at our e-mail addresses: Anil Pedgaonkar  (Section I) (anilped@hotmail.com) and Mukesh N. Tekwani (Section II) (mukeshtekwani@hotmail.com).

Anil A. Pedgaonkar & Mukesh N. Tekwani

June 1, 2001

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Last Updated on June 15, 2001 

© Mukesh N. Tekwani, 2001