Alt Text (ALTernate text)
On a Web page, a text description that can be added to the HTML tag that displays an image. The ALT text is displayed by the browser when the cursor is moved over the picture. If pictures are turned off in the browser, the ALT text is automatically displayed instead.
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)
A code for information exchange between computers made by different companies; a string of 7 binary digits represents each character; used in most microcomputers.
Bandwidth
A data transmission rate; the maximum amount of information (bits/second) that can be transmitted along a channel.
BCC (Blind Carbon Copy)
The field in an e-mail header that names additional recipients for the message. It is similar to carbon copy (cc), but the names do not appear in the recipient's message. Not all e-mail systems support the bcc feature.
Some people call it Blind Courtesy Copy.
Bit
A fundamental unit of information having just two possible values, as either of the binary digits 0 or 1. Eight bits make a byte.
Bot (roBOT)
A program used on the Internet that performs a repetitive function such as posting a message to multiple newsgroups or searching for information or news. Bots are used to provide comparison shopping. Bots also keep a channel open on the Internet Relay Chat (IRC). The term is used for all variety of macros and intelligent agents that are Internet or Web related.
Browser
The software on your computer that translates the coding and allows you to view a web page - popular browsers are Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Each has a different way of interpreting and displaying web pages.
Byte
A sequence of 8 bits (enough to represent one character of alphanumeric data) processed as a single unit of information.
Cache
A cache (pronounced CASH) is a place to store something temporarily. The files you automatically request by looking at a Web page are stored on your hard disk in a cache subdirectory under the directory for your browser (for example, Internet Explorer). When you return to a page you've recently looked at, the browser can get it from the cache rather than the original server, saving you time and the network the burden of some additional traffic. You can usually vary the size of your cache, depending on your particular browser.
Click-Through
The action when a user clicks on your search listing and arrives at your Web site.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
The number of clicks of all of your listings in a category received divided by the number of impressions received.
Client
A computer system or process that requests a service of another computer system or process (a "server") using some kind of protocol and accepts the server's responses. A client is part of a client-server software architecture.
For example, a workstation requesting the contents of a file from a file server is a client of the file server.
Cold Fusion
An application development tool from Macromedia for writing Web pages that interact with databases. Instead of writing tedious CGI and Perl scripts, operations are coded in the ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) which uses HTML-like tags embedded in the Web pages. The ColdFusion engine, which interfaces with a Windows-based Web server, interprets the codes, accesses the database and delivers the results as HTML pages for the Web browser.
Common Gateway Interface (CGI)
A standard for running external programs from a World Wide Web HTTP server. CGI specifies how to pass arguments to the executing program as part of the HTTP request. It also defines a set of environment variables. Commonly, the program will generate some HTML which will be passed back to the browser but it can also request URL redirection.
Conversion Rate
How many visits to your site converted to a sale or action.
Cookie
A collection of information, usually including a username and the current date and time, stored on the local computer of a person using the World Wide Web, used chiefly by websites to identify users who have previously registered or visited the site.
Crawler
Also known as a "Web crawler," "spider," "ant," "robot" (bot) and "intelligent agent," a crawler is a program that searches for information on the Web. It is used to locate HTML pages by content or by following hypertext links from page to page. Search engines use crawlers to find new Web pages that are summarized and added to their indexes.
CSV (Comma-Separated Values) File
In computers, a CSV (comma-separated values) file contains the values in a table as a series of ASCII text lines organized so that each column value is separated by a comma from the next column's value and each row starts a new line.
Data
Numbers, characters, images, or other method of recording, in a form which can be assessed by a human or (especially) input into a computer, stored and processed there, or transmitted on some digital channel. Computers nearly always represent data in binary.
Data on its own has no meaning, only when interpreted by some kind of data processing system does it take on meaning and become information.
People or computers can find patterns in data to perceive information, and information can be used to enhance knowledge. Since knowledge is prerequisite to wisdom, we always want more data and information. But, as modern societies verge on information overload, we especially need better ways to find patterns.
Database
One or more large structured sets of persistent data, usually associated with software to update and query the data. A simple database might be a single file containing many records, each of which contains the same set of fields where each field is a certain fixed width.
A database is one component of a database management system.
Dial Up
A temporary, as opposed to dedicated, connection between machines established over a telephone line using modems.
Domain Name
A unique website name, registered with The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), usually ending in .com, .net, .gov, .edu, org, etc. Also referred to as Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or website address
Domain Name System (DNS)
A general-purpose distributed, replicated, data query service chiefly used on Internet for translating hostnames into Internet addresses. Also, the style of hostname used on the Internet, though such a name is properly called a fully qualified domain name. DNS can be configured to use a sequence of name servers, based on the domains in the name being looked for, until a match is found.
The name resolution client (e.g. Unix's gethostbyname() library function) can be configured to search for host information in the following order: first in the local /etc/hosts file, second in NIS and third in DNS. This sequencing of Naming Services is sometimes called "name service switching". Under Solaris is configured in the file /etc/nsswitch.conf.
Downloading
To transfer (data or programs) from a server or host computer to one's own computer or device.
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
A family of digital telecommunications protocols designed to allow high speed data communication over the existing copper telephone lines between end-users and telephone companies.
When two conventional modems are connected through the telephone system (PSTN), it treats the communication the same as voice conversations. This has the advantage that there is no investment required from the telephone company (telco) but the disadvantage is that the bandwidth available for the communication is the same as that available for voice conversations, usually 64 kb/s (DS0) at most. The twisted-pair copper cables into individual homes or offices can usually carry significantly more than 64 kb/s but the telco needs to handle the signal as digital rather than analog.
There are many implementation of the basic scheme, differing in the communication protocol used and providing varying service levels. The throughput of the communication can be anything from about 128 kb/s to over 8 Mb/s, the communication can be either symmetric or asymmetric (i.e. the available bandwidth may or may not be the same upstream and downstream). Equipment prices and service fees also vary considerably.
The first technology based on DSL was ISDN, although ISDN is not often recognized as such nowadays. Since then a large number of other protocols have been developed, collectively referred to as xDSL, including HDSL, SDSL, ADSL, and VDSL.
Dynamic HTML (DHTML)
An extension of HTML giving greater control over the layout of page elements and the ability to have web pages which change and interact with the user without having to communicate with the server.
DHTML was created by Microsoft can be viewed in Internet Explorer 4.0 and Netscape Communicator 4.0 but, as usual, Microsoft and Netscape disagree on how DHTML should be implemented. The Document Object Model Group of the World Wide Web Consortium is developing standards for DHTML.
Electronic Mail (E-mail)
Messages automatically passed from one computer user to another, often through computer networks and/or via modems over telephone or other data transmission lines.
Encryption
To alter (a file, for example) using a secret code so as to be unintelligible to unauthorized parties.
Extranet
An extension of an institution's intranet, especially over the World Wide Web, enabling communication between the institution and people it deals with, often by providing limited access to its intranet.
The extension of a company's intranet out onto the Internet, e.g. to allow selected customers, suppliers and mobile workers to access the company's private data and applications via the World-Wide Web. This is in contrast to, and usually in addition to, the company's public web site which is accessible to everyone. The difference can be somewhat blurred but generally an extranet implies real-time access through a firewall of some kind.
Such facilities require very careful attention to security but are becoming an increasingly important means of delivering services and communicating efficiently.
Firewall
A security system consisting of a combination of hardware and software that limits the exposure of a computer or computer network to attack from crackers; commonly used on local area networks that are connected to the internet.
Flash
An animated graphics technology and format from Macromedia (now Adobe). Macromedia's Flash MX and Freehand applications, as well as many other third-party authoring programs, generate Flash files, which can be viewed through a Web browser plug-in (the Flash player) or multimedia applications that access the player directly. Flash files can include sound.
Flash uses the .FLA file extension for source files and .SWF extension for the Flash "movie" that is created and played. Flash files are widely used on the Web because the SWF format is very space-efficient. Other movie files (AVI, MPG, etc. ) files are massive by comparison and are not designed for interaction. Originally, the SWF extension meant "ShockWave Flash," which has confused people, because Shockwave is another Macromedia format created by its Director software. Shockwave files use the .DCR extension. Today, Macromedia calls the SWF format the "Small Web Format."
Flash supports vector graphics images, which scale with the application window as it is resized. Animation is choreographed using one or more sequential timelines in which actions and interactions are defined.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
A communications protocol governing the transfer of files from one computer to another over a network.
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)
A standard for digitized images compressed with the LZW algorithm, defined in 1987 by CompuServe (CIS).
Graphics Interchange Format and GIF are service marks of CompuServe Incorporated. This only affects use of GIF within Compuserve, and pass-through licensing for software to access them, it doesn't affect anyone else's use of GIF. It followed from a 1994 legal action by Unisys against CIS for violating Unisys's LZW software patent. The CompuServe Vice President has stated that "CompuServe is committed to keeping the GIF 89A specification as an open, fully-supported, non-proprietary specification for the entire on-line community including the World-Wide Web".
Filename extension: .gif.
Graphical User Interface (GUI)
A user interface based on graphics (icons and pictures and menus) instead of text; uses a mouse as well as a keyboard as an input device.
Host
A computer containing data or programs that another computer can access by means of a network or modem.
Hot Link
A connection between two files that automatically updates one whenever the other is updated.
HTTP Protocol
A protocol used to request and transmit files, especially webpages and webpage components, over the Internet or other computer network.
Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (utilizing TCP) to transfer hypertext requests and information between servers and browsers.
HTTP Server
A web server process running at a web site which sends out web pages in response to HTTP requests from remote browsers.
If one site runs more than one server they must use different port numbers. Alternatively, several hostnames may be mapped to the same computer in which case they are known as "virtual servers".
Apache and NCSA HTTPd are two popular web servers. There are many others including some for practically every platform. Servers differ mostly in the "server-side" features they offer such as server-side include, and in their authentication and access control mechanisms. All decent servers support CGI and most have some binary API as well.
HTTPd
Hypertext transfer protocol daemon. An HTTP/1.0-compatible server, written by Rob McCool of NCSA, for making hypertext and other documents available to World Wide Web browsers.
HTTPd is designed to be small and fast and to work with most HTTP/0.9 and HTTP/1.0 browsers. You can customise your server to execute searches and handle HTML forms. It also supports server side include files, allowing you to include the output of commands or other files in HTML documents.
Internet
An interconnected system of networks that connects computers around the world via the TCP/IP protocol.
Intranet
A privately maintained computer network that can be accessed only by authorized persons, especially members or employees of the organization that owns it.
Any network which provides similar services within an organization to those provided by the Internet outside it but which is not necessarily connected to the Internet. The commonest example is the use by a company of one or more World Wide Web servers on an internal TCP/IP network for distribution of information within the company.
Since about 1995, intranets have become a major growth area in corporate computing due to the availability of cheap or free commercial browser and web server software which allows them to provide a simple, uniform hypertext interface to many kinds of information and application programs.
Some companies give limited access to their intranets to other companies or the general public. This is known as an "extranet".
IP Address
An identifying number for a computer, often used to calculate how many visitors came to a site.
ISP (Internet Service Provider)
A company which provides other companies or individuals with access to, or presence on, the Internet. Most ISPs are also Internet Access Providers; extra services include help with design, creation and administration of World-Wide Web sites, training, and administration of intranets.
Java
A simple, object-oriented, distributed, interpreted, robust, secure, architecture-neutral, portable, multithreaded, dynamic, buzzword-compliant, general-purpose programming language developed by Sun Microsystems in 1995(?). Java supports programming for the Internet in the form of platform-independent Java "applets".
Java is similar to C++ without operator overloading (though it does have method overloading), without multiple inheritance, and extensive automatic coercions. It has automatic garbage collection.
Java programs can run stand-alone on small computers. The interpreter and class support take about 40 kilobytes; adding the standard libraries and thread support (essentially a self-contained microkernel) adds an additional 175Kb.
Java extends C++'s object-oriented facilities with those of Objective C for dynamic method resolution.
Java has an extensive library of routines for TCP/IP protocols like HTTP and FTP. Java applications can access objects across the Internet via URLs as easily as on the local file system.
The Java compiler and linker both enforce strong type checking - procedures must be explicitly typed. Java supports the creation of virus-free, tamper-free systems with authentication based on public-key encryption.
The Java compiler generates an architecture-neutral object file executable on any processor supporting the Java run-time system. The object code consists of bytecode instructions designed to be both easy to interpret on any machine and easily translated into native machine code at load time.
The Java libraries provide portable interfaces. For example, there is an abstract Window class and implementations of it for Unix, Microsoft Windows and the Macintosh. The run-time system is written in POSIX-compliant ANSI C. Java applets can be executed as attachments in World-Wide Web documents using either Sun's HotJava browser or Netscape Navigator version 2.0.
Java Servlet
A Java program that runs as part of a network service, typically an HTTP server and responds to requests from clients.
The most common use for a servlet is to extend a web server by generating web content dynamically. For example, a client may need information from a database; a servlet can be written that receives the request, gets and processes the data as needed by the client and then returns the result to the client.
Applets are also written in Java but run inside the JVM of a HTML browser on the client. Servlets and applets allow the server and client to be extended in a modular way by dynamically loading code which communicates with the main program via a standard programming interface.
Servlets are more flexible than CGI scripts and, being written in Java, more portable.
The spelling "servelet" is occasionally seen but JavaSoft spell it "servlet". There is no such thing as a "serverlet".
JavaScript
Netscape's simple, cross-platform, World-Wide Web scripting language, only very vaguely related to Java (which is a Sun trademark). JavaScript is intimately tied to the World-Wide Web, and currently runs in only three environments - as a server-side scripting language, as an embedded language in server-parsed HTML, and as an embedded language run in web browsers where it is the most important part of DHTML.
JavaScript has a simplified {C}-like syntax and is tightly integrated with the browser Document Object Model. It is useful for implementing enhanced forms, simple web database front-ends, and navigation enhancements.
JavaScript originated from Netscape and, for a time, only their products supported it. Microsoft now supports a work-alike called JScript. The resulting inconsistencies make it difficult to write JavaScript that behaves the same in all browsers. This could be attributed to the slow progress of JavaScript through the standards bodies.
JavaScript runs "100x" slower than {C}, as it is purely interpreted (Java runs "10x" slower than C code). Netscape and allies say JavaScript is an "open standard" in an effort to keep Microsoft from monopolising web software as they have desktop software. Netscape and Sun have co-operated to enable Java and JavaScript to exchange messages and data.
JPEG
The original name of the committee that designed the standard image compression algorithm. JPEG is designed for compressing either full-colour or grey-scale digital images of "natural", real-world scenes. It does not work so well on non-realistic images, such as cartoons or line drawings. JPEG does not handle compression of black-and-white (1 bit-per-pixel) images or moving pictures. Standards for compressing those types of images are being worked on by other committees, named JBIG and MPEG.
Kernel
The essential part of Unix or other operating systems, responsible for resource allocation, low-level hardware interfaces, security etc.
LAN (Local Area Network)
A system that links together electronic office equipment, such as computers and word processors, and forms a network within an office or building.
Meta Tag
An HTML tag that identifies the contents of a Web page for the search engines. Meta tags are hidden on the page, but they, as well as all the HTML code on a page, can be viewed by selecting View/Source or View/Page Source from the browser menu. Meta tags contain a general description of the page, keywords and copyright information.
MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
A communications protocol that allows for the transmission of data in many forms, such as audio, binary, or video.
Modem
A device for transmitting usually digital data over telephone wires by modulating the data into an audio signal to send it and demodulating an audio signal into data to receive it.
MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group)
Any of a set of standards established for the compression of digital video and audio data.
Network
A system of computers interconnected by telephone wires or other means in order to share information.
Open Source
Term coined in March 1998 following the Mozilla release to describe software distributed in source under licenses guaranteeing anybody rights to freely use, modify, and redistribute, the code. The intent was to be able to sell the hackers' ways of doing software to industry and the mainstream by avoid the negative connotations (to suits) of the term "free software". For discussion of the followon tactics and their consequences, see the Open Source Initiative (http://www.opensource.org) site.
Operating System
Software designed to control the hardware of a specific data-processing system in order to allow users and application programs to make use of it.
PDF (Portable Document Format)
The native file format for Adobe Systems' Acrobat. PDF is the file format for representing documents in a manner that is independent of the original application software, hardware, and operating system used to create those documents. A PDF file can describe documents containing any combination of text, graphics, and images in a device-independent and resolution independent format. These documents can be one page or thousands of pages, very simple or extremely complex with a rich use of fonts, graphics, color, and images.
Perl
A high-level programming language, started by Larry Wall in 1987 and developed as an open source project. It has an eclectic heritage, deriving from the ubiquitous {C} programming language and to a lesser extent from sed, awk, various Unix shell languages, Lisp, and at least a dozen other tools and languages. Originally developed for Unix, it is now available for many platforms.
The use of Perl has grown significantly since its adoption as the language of choice of many World-Wide Web developers. CGI interfaces and libraries for Perl exist for several platforms and Perl's speed and flexibility make it well suited for form processing and on-the-fly web page creation.
Perl programs are generally stored as text source files, which are compiled into virtual machine code at run time; this, in combination with its rich variety of data types and its common use as a glue language, makes Perl somewhat hard to classify as either a "scripting language" or an "applications language" -- see Ousterhout's dichotomy. Perl programs are usually called "Perl scripts", if only for historical reasons.
Pixel
The smallest addressable unit on a display screen. The higher the pixel resolution (the more rows and columns of pixels), the more information can be displayed.
Platform
The basic technology of a computer system's hardware and software that defines how a computer is operated and determines what other kinds of software can be used.
Plug-in
A file containing data used to alter, enhance, or extend the operation of a parent application program. One of the first uses of this term was in Silicon Beach's SuperPaint application (late 1980s?) for the Macintosh. It had a Plug-ins folder containing different tools and effects.
The Netscape Navigator World-Wide Web browser supports plug-ins which display or interpret a particular file format or protocol such as Shockwave, RealAudio, Adobe Systems, Inc. PDF, Corel CMX (vector graphics). The file to be displayed is included in a web page using an EMBED HTML tag.
Plug-ins, both commercially and independently authored, can usually be downloaded for free and are stored locally. Plug-ins come in different versions specific to particular operating systems (Microsoft Windows 3.1, 3.2, and Macintosh are available).
Protocol
A standard procedure for regulating data transmission between computers.
Return on Investment (ROI)
How much profit is generated per all money spent on a business.
RSS
A family of document types (generally based on RDF) for listing updates to a site. RSS documents (generally called "RSS feeds") are readable with RSS readers (generally called "aggregators") like BottomFeeder, although, in 2003, it is anticipated that aggregator functions will be incorporated into web browsers and/or NNTP newsreaders.
Search Engine
1) A software program that searches a database and gathers and reports information that contains or is related to specified terms.
2) A website whose primary function is providing a search engine for gathering and reporting information available on the Internet or a portion of the Internet.
Server
A program which provides some service to other (client) programs. The connection between client and server is normally by means of message passing, often over a network, and uses some protocol to encode the client's requests and the server's responses. The server may run continuously (as a daemon), waiting for requests to arrive or it may be invoked by some higher level daemon which controls a number of specific servers (inetd on Unix).
There are many servers associated with the Internet, such as those for HTTP, Network File System, Network Information Service (NIS), Domain Name System (DNS), FTP, news, finger, Network Time Protocol. On Unix, a long list can be found in /etc/services or in the NIS database "services".
Software
The programs, routines, and symbolic languages that control the functioning of the hardware and direct its operation.
Spam
Unsolicited e-mail, often of a commercial nature, sent indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups; junk e-mail.
SQL (Standard Query Language)
An industry-standard language for creating, updating and, querying relational database management systems.
SQL was developed by IBM in the 1970s for use in System R. It is the de facto standard as well as being an ISO and ANSI standard. It is often embedded in general purpose programming languages.
The first SQL standard, in 1986, provided basic language constructs for defining and manipulating tables of data; a revision in 1989 added language extensions for referential integrity and generalised integrity constraints. Another revision in 1992 provided facilities for schema manipulation and data administration, as well as substantial enhancements for data definition and data manipulation.
According to Allen G. Taylor, SQL does _not_ stand for "Structured Query Language". That, like "SEQUEL" (and its pronunciation /see'kw*l/), was just another unofficial name for a precursor of SQL. However, the IBM SQL Reference manual for DB2 and Craig Mullins's "DB2 Developer's Guide" say SQL _does_ stand for "Structured Query Language".
SQL Server
A relational DBMS from Sybase and from Microsoft. Sybase introduced SQL Server in 1988 for various Unix versions. In that same year, with help from IBM, Sybase created an OS/2 version that Microsoft licensed and branded as Microsoft SQL Server. Sybase later ported the product to NT and NetWare, and Sybase and Microsoft sold the same version for NT under their own brand names for several years.
The partnership ended in 1994 with Version 4, and each company continued developing its version of the product separately. Microsoft SQL Server became Microsoft's flagship database software for Windows. In 1997, Sybase turned its version into Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise, which uses different data stores optimized for specific applications.
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)
A protocol designed by Netscape Communications Corporation to provide encrypted communications on the Internet. SSL is layered beneath application protocols such as HTTP, SMTP, Telnet, FTP, Gopher, and NNTP and is layered above the connection protocol TCP/IP. It is used by the HTTPS access method.
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol)
A protocol for communication between computers, used as a standard for transmitting data over networks and as the basis for standard Internet protocols.
Telnet
Often Telnet An Internet communications protocol that enables a computer to function as a terminal working from a remote computer.
Unix
An interactive time-sharing operating system invented in 1969 by Ken Thompson after Bell Labs left the Multics project, originally so he could play games on his scavenged PDP-7. Dennis Ritchie, the inventor of {C}, is considered a co-author of the system.
URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
An Internet address (for example, http://www.tangiblegraphics.com/), usually consisting of the access protocol (http), the domain name (www.tangiblegraphics.com), and optionally the path to a file or resource residing on that server (trade).
Vector Graphics
In computer graphics, a technique for representing a picture as points, lines and other geometric entities. Vector graphics typically take up considerably less file space, because they are a mathematical representation of the elements of the image, rather than a matrix of pixels. All computer-aided design (CAD), drawing and diagramming programs create vector graphics formats.
Virus
A program or piece of code written by a cracker that "infects" one or more other programs by embedding a copy of itself in them, so that they become Trojan horses. When these programs are executed, the embedded virus is executed too, thus propagating the "infection". This normally happens invisibly to the user.
A virus has an "engine" - code that enables it to propagate and optionally a "payload" - what it does apart from propagating. It needs a "host" - the particular hardware and software environment on which it can run and a "trigger" - the event that starts it running.
Unlike a worm, a virus cannot infect other computers without assistance. It is propagated by vectors such as humans trading programs with their friends. The virus may do nothing but propagate itself and then allow the program to run normally. Usually, however, after propagating silently for a while, it starts doing things like writing "cute" messages on the terminal or playing strange tricks with the display (some viruses include display hacks). Viruses written by particularly antisocial crackers may do irreversible damage, like deleting files.
By the 1990s, viruses had become a serious problem, especially among IBM PC and Macintosh users (the lack of security on these machines enables viruses to spread easily, even infecting the operating system). The production of special antivirus software has become an industry, and a number of exaggerated media reports have caused outbreaks of near hysteria among users. Many lusers tend to blame *everything* that doesn't work as they had expected on virus attacks. Accordingly, this sense of "virus" has passed into popular usage where it is often incorrectly used for a worm or Trojan horse.
Visual Basic (VB)
A popular event-driven visual programming system from Microsoft Corporation for Microsoft Windows. VB is good for developing Windows interfaces, it invokes fragments of BASIC code when the user performs certain operations on graphical objects on-screen. It is widely used for in-house application program development and for prototyping. It can also be used to create ActiveX and COM components.
Visual Basic Script (VBScript)
Microsoft's scripting language which is an extension of their Visual Basic language. VBScript can be used with Microsoft Office applications and others. It can also be embedded in web pages but can only be understood by Internet Explorer.
Visual Basic is a BASIC variant with object-oriented features. Objects include applications, windows and selections.
WAN (Wide Area Network)
A communications network that uses such devices as telephone lines, satellite dishes, or radio waves to span a larger geographic area than can be covered by a LAN.
Web Page
A document on the World Wide Web, consisting of an HTML file and any related files for scripts and graphics, and often hyperlinked to other documents on the Web.
Web Server
HTTP Server. A server process running at a web site which sends out web pages in response to HTTP requests from remote browsers.
If one site runs more than one server they must use different port numbers. Alternatively, several hostnames may be mapped to the same computer in which case they are known as "virtual servers".
Apache and NCSA HTTPd are two popular web servers. There are many others including some for practically every platform. Servers differ mostly in the "server-side" features they offer such as server-side include, and in their authentication and access control mechanisms. All decent servers support CGI and most have some binary API as well.
Web Site
A set of interconnected webpages, usually including a homepage, generally located on the same server, and prepared and maintained as a collection of information by a person, group, or organization.
Windows NT
(Windows New Technology, NT) Microsoft's 32-bit operating system developed from what was originally intended to be OS/2 3.0 before Microsoft and IBM ceased joint development of OS/2. NT was designed for high end workstations (Windows NT 3.1), servers (Windows NT 3.1 Advanced Server), and corporate networks (NT 4.0 Enterprise Server). The first release was Windows NT 3.1.
Unlike Windows 3.1, which was a graphical environment that ran on top of MS-DOS, Windows NT is a complete operating system. To the user it looks like Windows 3.1, but it has true multi-threading, built in networking, security, and memory protection.
It is based on a microkernel, with 32-bit addressing for up to 4Gb of RAM, virtualised hardware access to fully protect applications, installable file systems, such as FAT, HPFS and NTFS, built-in networking, multi-processor support, and C2 security.
NT is also designed to be hardware independent. Once the machine specific part - the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) - has been ported to a particular machine, the rest of the operating system should theorertically compile without alteration. A version of NT for DEC's Alpha machines was planned (September 1993).
NT needs a fast 386 or equivalent, at least 12MB of RAM (preferably 16MB) and at least 75MB of free disk space.
NT 4.0 was followed by Windows 2000.
World Wide Web
The complete set of documents or collection of internet sites residing on all Internet servers that use the HTTP protocol, accessible to users via a simple point-and-click system.
WYSIWYG
Describes a user interface under which "What You See Is What You Get", as opposed to one that uses more-or-less obscure commands that do not result in immediate visual feedback. True WYSIWYG in environments supporting multiple fonts or graphics is a a rarely-attained ideal; there are variants of this term to express real-world manifestations including WYSIAWYG (What You See Is _Almost_ What You Get) and WYSIMOLWYG (What You See Is More or Less What You Get). All these can be mildly derogatory, as they are often used to refer to dumbed-down user-friendly interfaces targeted at non-programmers; a hacker has no fear of obscure commands (compare WYSIAYG). On the other hand, EMACS was one of the very first WYSIWYG editors, replacing (actually, at first overlaying) the extremely obscure, command-based TECO.
Zip
To create a compressed archive (a "zip file") from one or more files using PKWare's PKZIP or a compatible archiver. Its use is spreading from MS-DOS now that portable implementations of the algorithm have been written.