Next: References Up: Spinning the Web Previous: GZIP

Glossary

Anchor

A marker for the beginning or the end of a hypertext link.

Anonymous FTP

A method of using FTP without having to have an account on the server system. On systems offering an anonymous FTP service, the user names `anonymous' and `ftp' are recognized to allow access using the user's email address as a password.

Arena

An experimental Web browser program, being developed at CERN.

Attribute

A parameter of an HTML element, that modifies its effect.

Authoring tool

A program which partially automates the process of writing HTML.

Body

In reference to an HTML document, the main text part of the document: its content.

Browser

A program which sends requests for resources across networks and displays those resources when they are received. Another name for a Web client program.

Button

A screen-layout term, meaning a graphical representation of a button on an area of screen, designed to be `clicked on' or otherwise selected, as a method of user input.

CERN

The European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Geneva, Switzerland, where the Web was first developed. Has lent its name to one of the most popular Web server programs, which was developed there.

CGI

Common Gateway Interface. The standard interface between HTTP servers and external programs.

CWIS

Campus-Wide Information Systems. Computer-based integrated information systems providing information about various aspects of a college campus. CWIS have been around for some time and were originally developed on mainframe computers, but are now available on a variety of platforms. The term has broadened to include information systems in schools and other campus-type institutions.

Client

A program requesting information from a server program. In Web-speak the program that a person uses to browse the Web (also called browser).

Client-server architecture

A basic concept used in computer networking, wherein servers retrieve information requested by clients, and clients display that information to the user.

Container

An HTML element that contains text. The term is also used in SGML, with the same meaning.

Clickable image

An image displayed on a screen, which when pointed at with a mouse or other pointing device, initiates some action on the computer.

Daemon process

Used to denote a background system process on UNIX which runs independently of any user who is logged-in. This term has come into common usage on the Internet, to refer to server programs running on other operating systems too.

DTD

Document Type Definition; an SGML description of a document markup language (such as HTML).

Element

A structural part of an HTML or SGML document

Entity

An HTML symbol that represents a special character. An SGML entity has a much wider use as a sort of macro and inclusion facility. This form of entity may appear in future versions of HTML.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

A standard Internet protocol which allows files to be transmitted from one computer to another across a network.

Fill-out forms

Often abbreviated to Forms. The main mechanism whereby Web sites elicit information from Web users. User-entered data is returned to the Web site encoded within a browser request.

Free Software Foundation

An organization dedicated to creating fine, freely distributable software. Much widely used software, such as the GNU utilities, orignates from the FSF. Their software is not public domain, but rather is covered by a copyright statement and license, the effect of which is to ensure that the software remains freely available.

GIF

Graphics Interchange Format. A standard graphics file format developed by CompuServe, Inc.

Gopher

A menu-based network information system devised at the University of Minnesota.

GNU

Recursive acronym, which stands for `GNU is not UNIX'. Used in relation to software from the Free Software Foundation, including GNU Emacs, the GNU C compiler, gzip and much more.

Head

That part of a Web document, at the beginning, which contains meta-information about the document.

Host

A computer attached to the Internet.

Home page

A Web page that is used as an individual user's starting point, i.e. the page that is fetched when the user starts his or her browser. It is also used to refer to the top level page of a server, although this is more correctly termed a Welcome Page.

Hypertext

Words or phrases in a document which when selected, usually by clicking with a mouse, are used as links which summon up other information.

HTML

HyperText Markup Language. The markup language used for World Wide Web documents.

HTTP

HyperText Transfer Protocol. The Internet protocol that is used to allow Web clients to retrieve information from Web servers.

IAB

Internet Architecture Board. The organization that creates Internet standards.

IANA

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. The central registration authority for values used in Internet protocols. Part of the IAB.

IETF

Internet Engineering Task Force. An organization composed of working groups, open to all interested indiciduals, which designs and updates protocols for the Internet.

Image button

See button.

Image Map

A form of clickable image in which different computer actions are initiated according to which area of the image is selected.

Intelligent agent

An automated network information gathering tool, which cruises the Internet, searching indexes and databases for the names of documents on subjects specified by the user. Sometimes referred to as a Knowbot.

Internet

The global computer network of networks. When spelled with a lower case i, the term refers to an interconnected group of networks.

IP Address

Internet Protocol Address. A standardized method of identifying a particular computer connected to a network. The IP address is expressed as four numbers, separated by periods, each less than 256, and provides a unique identifier for every computer connected to a network, in much the same way as postal addresses operate.

ISO

International Organization for Standardization. ISO is an industry-wide body which defines network protocols.

JPEG

Joint Photographic Experts Group; also refers to the graphics file format developed by that body.

Kiosk-mode browser

A browser program configured to allow user access only to a restricted range of Web documents.

Knowbots

See Intelligent Agents.

A document preparation system devised by Leslie Lamport, based on the typesetting system.

Line-mode browser

A Web browser program which does not have the facility to display images; one which displays text only.

Markup language

A language specially designed for the processing, definition and presentation of text.

Meta-information

Information of a higher order: information about information.

MIME

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. An extension to the Internet mail standard, now often used to package multimedia resouces being transmitted across networks.

Mosaic

The first widely-used graphical Web browser program, developed at the NCSA.

MPEG

Motion Pictures Experts Group; also refers to the format for files containing moving pictures developed by that group.

NCSA

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The site where one of the most popular Web browser programs, Mosaic, was developed.

Network

A generic term for physically separate computers connected to each other by means of telecommunications hardware and software.

Network News

Also known as USENET News - the Internet news information service.

NNTP

Network News Transfer Protocol. Network News (sometimes known as USENET News) is an Internet news information service. NNTP is the transfer protocol used for moving news files around the network.

Node

A physical sub-division of a logical Web document. When a large Web document is divided into smaller sections to facilitate rapid access across the net, each separate section is termed a node.

Port

A numeric identifier for an Internet service used to distinguish between different services offered by hosts. Web servers, for example, use port 80 by default. Network ports are unrelated to hardware ports, such as printer ports on PCs.

PostScript

A page description language used by printers and some window systems.

PPP

Point to Point Protocol. An Internet protocol for connecting computers over a serial line.

Protocol

A standardized description of the messages that computer programs exchange to communicate with each other over the Internet so as to provide a particular service. Also used to refer to the service, such as FTP, HTTP, and so on.

RFC

Request For Comments. The name given to discussion and documentation papers for Internet standards.

Resource

An item of information provided on the Web. It was felt that other terms such as document, were too narrow to express the range of different media currently available, and likely to become available in the future.

Server

A program that provides a service by responding to requests from other client programs. The term is also used to refer to the computer system on which the server program runs.

Server side includes

A Web server feature, which allows information to be included into HTML documents by the server at the time they are delivered to clients. This feature is implemented in the NCSA server.

Selector

A string of characters used to specify a menu item to a Gopher server. Analagous to a URL.

SGML

Standard Generalized Markup Language. A system for describing markup languages, standardized as an international standard, ISO 8879.

SLIP

Serial Line Internet Protocol. A protocol for connecting computers using Internet protocols over a dial-up telephone line or other serial line.

SMTP

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol; the Internet electronic mail transfer protocol.

Tag

An SGML character sequence that starts an element. The term has the same meaning in HTML.

TELNET

A standard Internet protocol, providing a remote login service.

UDP

User Datagram Protocol, one of the basic, low-level standard Internet protocols.

URC

Uniform Reource Citation. A new Internet addressing system, still under discussion, that will allow multiple copies of a resource to be identified.

URI

Uniform Resource Identifier. A standard means of addressing resources on the Web. See also URLs, URCs and URNs.

URL

Uniform Resource Locator. The current addressing scheme for resources on the Web, which gives the location of a particular copy of a resource.

URN

Uniform Resource Name. A new Internet addressing scheme, still under discussion, which will allow multiple copies of a resource to be identified.

USENET News

A popular networked discussion list system.

Virtual document

A document which does not exist as a physical file, but which is generated in response to a request.

WAIS

Wide Area Information Service. A network information system allowing searching of documents.

Welcome Page

The introductory Web page for a Web server, also refered to as a home page.

X Window System

A networked windowing system developed by MIT and now by the X Consortium that is commonly used on UNIX and VMS systems.

W3 Organization

A recently-formed group, mostly composed of organizations rather than individuals, who are working together to coordinate the development of Web technology. Sometimes also known as W3O.

Wrapper program

A short program or script, written to encapsulate a larger program, often used to transform data into the form required by the encapsulated program.

Spinning the Web by Andrew Ford
© 1995 International Thomson Publishing
© 2002 Andrew Ford and Ford & Mason Ltd
Note: this HTML document was generated in December 1994 directly from the LaTeX source files using LaTeX2HTML. It was formatted into our standard page layout using the Template Toolkit. The document is mainly of historical interest as obviously many of the sites mentioned have long since disappeared.