Glossary of terms

Notes:
1) words marked in bold are themselves in the glossary.
2) words between [ and ] indicate a class of interest.

Anchor [HTML]

One or the other side of a link.
Example: a link from the word "Legal" in the source document to a legal paragraph in the "Overview" target document has two anchors: <HREF="Overview.html#legalparagraph">Legal</A> in the source, and an anchor <A NAME="legalparagraph"> (the legal paragraph ... ) </A> in the Overview.html target.

Applet [JAVA]

A small application program that runs inside a Web page.

Attribute [HTML]

An extra indication inside a tag. Example: in <HR size=3> the size is an attribute of the HR tag.

Author

Someone who constructs or maintains Web pages using a computer and tools.

Browser

A client program allowing mouse-click access to the Web.

Element [HTML]

A part of an HTML document. It is surrounded by tags. A paragraph is an element.

Caching

(from "to hide" = cacher in French) a service which makes local copies of information that comes from far away or through slow lines, thereby speeding up subsequent accesses by the same or other users. For the Web this is usually done on a machine that is also a proxy.

CGI [HTTP]

Common Gateway Interface. The standard that defines how parameters are passed between Web applications.

Any Web page with a form uses CGI to transfer the contents of the form's fields to the Data Base application.

CGI script [HTTP]

A program of some sort that uses the CGI standard to produce a Web page, usually from data in a data base.

Counters

Images of numbers that are used to indicate how often a page has been accessed. The actual counter resides on some other server, hence counters cause traffic.

Because the contents of the page is different each time it is accessed, such pages cannot be kept in a cache.

CSS

Cascading Style Sheets. Defination of presentation of entire sets of HTML elements. CSS lets you reduce the dependencies on layout tags and at the same time gives better control over screen positioning of HTML elements.

FAQ

"Frequently Asked Question"; FAQ lists give both the questions and the answers to frequently encountered problems. Look in FAQ lists before contacting a person.

Frame [HTML]

A subdivision of a browser window. Navigation in each frame is different. Non-standard technology.

Helper application

Application launched by a browser when it receives a file in a format it cannot display itself. Browsers keep a list of which helper application to use with which file format.

Home page

Originally used to denote the document you start from (usually written by you on your local machine). This term has shifted to mean the page shown first by a server (which was called the Welcome page).

Hotlist

Collection of URLs kept by a browser to allow direct access to sites of interest.

Also called Bookmarks or Favorites.

HTML

HyperText Mark-up Language, the language in which Web documents are structured.

HTML is an SGML application. It is not a subset of SGML, and it is not a format but a structuring method.

HTTP

HyperText Transfer Protocol, the set of rules governing communication between Web servers and Web clients (browsers).

Hypertext

A way of linking related pieces of information on a computer whereby the computer is essential in the reading and navigation.

Information provider

Someone who makes content available on the Web. Can also be an author.

Internet

The network built of existing network through the use of a common standard protocol, TCP/IP.

IW3C2

The International WWW Conference Committee, which looks after the series of Web Conferences at academic level. See http:/www.iw3c2.org/

JAVA

An object oriented programming language, cleaner than C and C⁺⁺. Designed at SUN Microsystems. JAVA "Classes" (=subroutine libraries) have been written to support primitive graphics and network access. A harness also exists to run small JAVA programs as part of a Web page (applets). JAVA became popular because of the existence of byte-code interpreters for most patforms, therefore JAVA programs can be shipped through the network and run without recompiling.

Link [HTML]

HTML links are uni-directional from a source page to a target page. If no NAME attribute is specified, the target is an entire page.
Connection from a phrase in one page to (a part of) another page (the target). Links are visible on the Web page. A mouse-click instructs the browser to retrieve the target page.

Linked text is enclosed in anchor tags <A> and </A> and the target page is given by its URL in the HREF attribute.

Markup [HTML]

The presence of tags in a text, which makes it into HTML.

Nesting [HTML]

Putting elements inside other elements.

Example: bulleted lists can be nested as sublists inside other lists. Paragraphs can be nested inside table cells.

Not all nesting is allowed: you cannot nest a heading inside another heading.

Protocol

A set of rules for well-behaved communication over a data link. TCP/IP and HTTP are examples.

Proxy

A service which acts on behalf of anohter one. A Web Proxy is a machine that fetches pages on request of a browser on another machine. A proxy is one way of protecting an internal network from outside hacker attacks: all internal machines will have their browsers configured to ask the proxy to fetch the external pages for them. A proxy usually also performs a caching function.

Reader

User of hypertext, specifically Web pages.

Server (Web server)

A piece of software that makes a machine responsive to HTTP calls. CERN httpd was the original Web server.

SGML

Standard Generalised Markup Language, invented by Charles Goldfarb in 1970's for separating document structure from its presentation.

Structure

Inherent properties of a text, that are independent of its presentation.

Style

The set of characteristics that determine appearance on the canvas. Font, margins, indentation, spacing are all determining the style of a paragraph. Style is assigned to HTML elements by CSS.

Tag [HTML]

A piece of Markup.Tags are inserted in text to indicate unambiguously desired structure such as paragraphs, lists, headings.

TCP/IP

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. The bottom layer for all well-known Internet services such as e-mail, file transfer and the Web.

Template

An example page which indicates the major elements to be used, and into which an anchor can fill in content.

URL

Uniform Resource Locator, the computer addresses used by the Web, "http://ww.cern.ch" is the URL for CERN's Welcome page.

User

someone who uses the Web (usually by browsing or searching for information) but is not producing Web content.

Webmaster

Person responsible for one or more Web sites.

Web Policy Group

The body mandated by the Management Board to decide CERN Web policy.

Welcome page

The page returned by a server when no other detail is given in the URL. Now commonly called "home page".

W3C

The global WWW Consortium, a gathering of over 170 industrial companies who fund a team of developers. These set the standards for the Web technologies. The team is hosted at INRIA, MIT and Keio university. Director is Tim Berners Lee. See http://www.w3.org/