Some people like to do this using a dedicated diagramming software, like Microsoft Visio.
A friend of mine, who is a native English speaker, says that this sentence doesn't sound weird to him at all. But isn't it true that the word software is inherently a mass noun, so no articles are possbile or is he right that software can be used as a count noun to mean something like program and application? I actually have never seen software used as a count noun like that. I always thought that this word was a mass noun and could not be anything else. What do you guys think?
Answer
My experience has always been that software is an uncountable or mass noun.
I would phrase your sentence as Some people like to do this using dedicated diagramming software.
The usual "unit of measurement" for software is piece. I need a piece of software for diagramming means I need a diagramming application. This seems to be by analogy with silverware and other similar words.
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