Are some computer systems considered services even though they are not web based?

Answer 1

The short answer is yes, there are various type of services that companies and projects use which are not web-based at all and their whole purpose is to optimally provide a specific service to the whole system or project.

By emerging the concept of micro-services among Developers specially for that past couple of years, the need of small-sized services which in some cases are not web-based at all got higher.

The concept behind micro-services is essentially breaking down a big complex module or system into smaller ones that are communicating with each other.

Imagine I have a calculator app (not web app) which is having a GUI and a calculation process. For having easier time down the road in making changes to my app I decide to decouple the two main functions and make two projects one for GUI (Graphical User Interface) and the other for calculation called CalculationService.

1. The GUI project gets the number and symbols from user and then passes all the info, as the client, to the CalculationService.
2. CalculationService, which has been running in the background would then calculate the result of passes info and returns it to the GUI.
3. GUI shows the results

Good luck,

Shervin