Editing Systems programming (section)

{{Short description|Developing programs for computer systems}}
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'''Systems programming''', or '''system programming''', is the activity of programming<ref name=":0" /> [[computer]] [[system software]]. The primary distinguishing characteristic of systems programming when compared to [[application programming]] is that application programming aims to produce software which provides services to the user directly (e.g. [[word processor]]), whereas systems programming aims to produce software and [[software platform]]s which provide services to other software, are performance constrained, or both (e.g. [[operating system]]s, [[computational science]] applications, [[game engine]]s, [[Automation#Industrial automation|industrial automation]], and [[software as a service]] applications).<ref name=":0">{{cite web|title=Panel: Systems Programming in 2014 and Beyond|url=https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Lang-NEXT/Lang-NEXT-2014/Panel-Systems-Programming-Languages-in-2014-and-Beyond|publisher=Microsoft|access-date=4 December 2015}}</ref>

Systems programming requires a great degree of hardware awareness. Its goal is to achieve efficient use of available resources, either because the software itself is performance-critical or because even small efficiency improvements directly transform into significant savings of time or money.