case study front end and back end

Front-end and back-end are terms used to characterize program interfaces and services relative to the initial user of these interfaces and services. (The "user" may be a human being or a program.) A "front-end" application is one that application users interact with directly. A "back-end" application or program serves indirectly in support of the front-end services, usually by being closer to the required resource or having the capability to communicate with the required resource.

Front end and back end are generalized terms that refer to the initial and the end stages of a process. The front end is responsible for collecting input in various forms from the user and processing it to conform to a specification the back end can use. The front end is an interface between the user and the back end.

Front-end and back-end are terms used to characterize program interfaces and services relative to the initial user of these interfaces and services. (The "user" may be a human being or a program.) A "front-end" application is one that application users interact with directly. A "back-end" application or program serves indirectly in support of the front-end services, usually by being closer to the required resource or having the capability to communicate with the required resource.

Example - the Telephony Application Program Interface ( TAPI ) is sometimes referred to as a front-end interface for telephone services. A program's TAPI requests are mapped by Microsoft's TAPI Dynamic Link Library programs (an intermediate set of programs) to a "back-end" program or driver that makes the more detailed series of requests to the telephone hardware in the computer

In software architecture there are many layers between the hardware and end user. Each can be spoken of as having a front end and a back end. The front is an abstraction, simplifying the underlying component by providing a user-friendly interface.

In software design, the model-view-controller for example, provides front and back ends for the database, the user, and the data processing components. The separation of software systems into front and back ends simplifies development and separates maintenance.

For major computer subsystems, a graphical file manager is a front end to the computer's file system, and a shell interfaces the operating system — the front end faces the user and the back end launches the programs of the operating system in response.

In network computing front end can refer to any hardware that optimizes or protects network traffic. It is called application front-end hardware because it is placed on the network's outward-facing front end or boundary. Network traffic passes through the front-end hardware before entering the network.

In compilers, the front end translates a computer programming source code into an intermediate representation, and the back end works with the intermediate representation to produce code in a computer output language. The back end usually optimizes to produce code that runs faster. The front-end–back-end distinction can separate the parser section that deals with source code and the back end that generates code and optimizes; some designs (such as GCC) offer choices between multiple front ends (parsing different source languages) or back ends (generating code for different target processors).

In speech synthesis, the front end refers to the part of the synthesis system that converts the input text into a symbolic phonetic representation, and the back end converts the symbolic phonetic representation into actual sounds.
In the context of WWW applications, a mediator is a service that functions simultaneously as a server on its front end and as a client on its back end.

A front end can also be a piece of software that is designed to make using a computer in the car easy and enjoyable.  These software offerings will hide the Windows desktop and are designed with the driver in mind.  Items like big buttons, gestures, intuitive user interfaces, and customizable skins make Car Computing even more fun!