Soon, it was discovered that applications could be built. The early applications automated
what would otherwise be tedious activities. The first applications centered around human
resources, payroll, and accounts payable/receivable.

The first applications used the computer to automate human activities.

The First Applications

Fig. 7.1.2 depicts the advent of the first applications.

Fig. 7.1.2 The advent of the first applications.

Once organizations discovered that they could write applications, soon, applications
began to spring up everywhere. In the very earliest days of application development, the
coding practices were very nonuniform, to say the least. The code that was produced was
very difficult to maintain and was often inefficient. In the early days, there were no
standard coding practices. Everyone “did his/her own thing.” As a result, the code that
was produced was very unstable.

Chapter 7.1: The Operational Environment: A Short History