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Understanding Web Jargon
Apache. The most popular web server. It is open source and free
for anyone to use.
Blog. A short for 'weblog'. A web page that is updated like a
diary, with the most recent writing first. Usually done using
blogging software instead of being maintained by hand.
Browser. A web browser is the software that you use to view
pages on the web. Internet Explorer is the most common browser.
Cache. A web browser's cache is where it keeps files that it has
downloaded from the web and might need to use again. A site's
logo and navigation graphics may be stored in the cache, for
example, so that they don't have to be downloaded again each
time you go from one page of the site to another. This happens
automatically.
Cookies. Small files that websites can store on your computer to
let them 'remember' you. When you log into a website and you're
still logged in when you go back there later on, that's because
the site gave your browser a cookie.
Favorites. Also known as Bookmarks, this is a place in your
browser where you can save links to pages that you'd like to
visit again.
Flash. A browser plug-in developed by Macromedia that displays
animations and animated websites.
FTP. File Transfer Protocol. The usual method of uploading files
from your computer to a web server.
HTML. Hypertext Markup Language. The language that web pages are
written in.
HTTP. Hypertext Transfer Protocol. Theoretically, the way that
HTML pages are sent between a server and a browser, although in
practice HTTP is used for sending all sorts of data, including
graphics and file downloads. Many files should really be
provided using FTP, but HTTP is considered to be easier and
faster.
IIS. Internet Information Server. Microsoft's competitor to
Apache, comes with versions of Windows that can be used as web
servers. Often considered to be somewhat insecure and prone to
crashing, although recent versions have improved.
ISP. Internet Service Provider. The company or institution that
provides your computer with access to the Internet, usually in
exchange for a monthly fee.
Link. A link is some text on one web page that will take you to
another page if you click on it.
MySQL. MySQL is a free, open source database. It is often used
for smaller web applications and websites.
Open source. Open source software is software which makes its
source code freely available. This is intended to give you more
freedom to modify the software however you want (or pay someone
to modify it for you), instead of tying you to a company and
relying on them for updates. In practice, this means that the
software is available for download at no cost. Visit
www.opensource.org for more information.
PDF. Portable Document Format. A document format that aims to
reproduce text exactly the way it would appear on a page.
Viewable in web browsers using a plug-in, but disliked by many
users because it can be very slow.
PHP. Stands for 'PHP: Hypertext Processor'. A very easy to learn
and easy to use scripting language that is one of the most
common on the web, helped along by the fact that it is also
free. It is most often used in quite simple ways, such as
retrieving text from a database and adding it to a page.
URL. Uniform Resource Locator. A technical term for a whole web
address, such as http://www.example.com/page.html. It is called
uniform because you can use similar addresses to refer to
entirely different kinds of resources: for example,
file://c:/windows refers to your Windows folder, and
ftp://ftp.example.com/public_html refers to a folder on an FTP
server.
W3C. The World Wide Web Consortium (three Ws and a C, so W3C).
This is the standards body that is considered to be 'in charge'
of the web, and decides what gets put in and taken out of the
various versions of HTML, amongst other things.
About the author:
Information supplied and written by Lee Asher of Eclipse Domain
Services
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