Software

"Software" is a song from the Schoolhouse Rock! segment Scooter Computer and Mr. Chips. It teaches us about computer software.

Lyrics[]

To have some fun or pass a quiz
Just follow this computer whiz
Scooter Computer and Mr. Chips
They've got the answers at their fingertips

Scooter:
Here I am and there you stand, such distance in between
Because I am a human and you are a machine
How can I communicate exactly what I mean
When I am a human and you are a machine

Parlez-vous Francais?
¿Habla Español?

Mr. Chips:
I am a computer with so much in store
If you could learn my language or I could speak in yours
Then I'd do more work for you than you could ever dream

Though you are a human and I am a machine

Scooter:
Ok, I'll give it a try

Mr. Chips:
First I hope you'll clear your mind and listen closely, Scooter
Forget the words you thought you knew and start to think computer
Computers change the letters and the numerals humans type
To a number code made up of things that we call bits and bytes

Scooter:
Bits and bytes?

Mr. Chips:
Think computer, Scooter
A byte is several digits all standing in a row
They help present a letter or a number that you know
For instance when you write an "A"
This byte is what I see
And 00110011 is my way of saying "3"

This bit is one little bit of a byte

Scooter:
I get it - bits and bytes are sort of a computer's alphabet

Mr. Chips:
That's right, but ABC and 123 isn't talking
Hey, let's face it
That's why one language that we use is called computer BASIC

Scooter:
Computer BASIC?

Mr. Chips:
"Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code"
BASIC is a language that most computers know, and once you start to speak it, communications flow. You use words and phrases - I use bits and bytes instead, and BASIC lets us understand what the other one just said.

Scooter:
So BASIC is a language that I can talk in human and you can talk in machine and we can understand each other.

Mr. Chips:
Yes, BASIC is the language you'll be using to feed in my data. It's also the language all my programs or software are written in.

Scooter:
Data, programs, software?

Mr. Chips:
Data is information
Data means the facts
It's everything you store in me
For solving problems back
A program means directions
That tell me what to do
How to analyze my data
And find answers just for you
And Software is just another name
For all the instructions of programs that you feed me

Scooter:
Here I am and there you stand, we're closer than we seem
Though I am a human and you are a machine
I'll get a book on BASIC and as quickly as I can
I will talk computer, and you will understand

We didn't do too badly, did we Mr. Chips?

Mr. Chips:
It was pretty amazing, Scooter

v - e - d

Media
Schoolhouse Rock! • Schoolhouse Rock Live! • Schoolhouse Rock! 50th Anniversary Singalong

Songs

Schoolhouse Rocky
Multiplication: My Hero, Zero • Elementary, My Dear • Three is a Magic Number • The Four-Legged Zoo • Ready or Not, Here I Come • I Got Six • Lucky Seven Sampson • Figure Eight • Naughty Number Nine • The Good Eleven • Little Twelvetoes
Grammar: Unpack Your Adjectives • Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here • Conjunction Junction • Interjections! • Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla • Verb: That's What's Happening • A Noun is a Person, Place or Thing • Busy Prepositions • The Tale of Mr. Morton
America: No More Kings • Fireworks • The Shot Heard 'Round the World • The Preamble • Elbow Room • The Great American Melting Pot • Mother Necessity • Sufferin' Till Suffrage • I'm Just a Bill • Three Ring Government • I'm Gonna Send Your Vote to College • Presidential Minute
Science: The Body Machine • Do the Circulation • Electricity, Electricity • The Energy Blues • Interplanet Janet • Telegraph Line • Them Not-So-Dry Bones • A Victim of Gravity • The Weather Show
Money: Dollars and Sense • $7.50 Once a Week • Where the Money Goes • Tax Man Max • Walkin' on Wall Street • This for That • Tyrannosaurus Debt • The Check's in the Mail
Earth: Report from the North Pole • The Little Things We Do • The Trash Can Band • You Oughta Be Saving Water • The Rainforest • Save the Ocean • Fat Cat Blue: The Clean Rivers Song • A Tiny Urban Zoo • Solar Power to the People • Windy and the Windmills • Don't Be a Carbon Sasquatch • The Three R's

Scooter Computer and Mr. Chips
Theme • Hardware • Software • Number Cruncher

Characters
Schoolhouse Rocky • Lucky Seven Sampson • Bill • Interplanet Janet