absolute addressing
Absolute addressing is a way to specify URLs within an HTML document. Absolute addressing means you specify the complete URL.
Acrobat
Acrobat software (by Adobe) lets you create electronic documents from a wide
range of authoring tools to share across different computer platforms. Some
people publish Acrobat formatted documents to the internet. If you want to
access these documents from the web, you must download a copy of the Acrobat
reader software to your desktop machine (called Acrobat Reader). This allows
you to view or print the document with the hardware and software you already
have. There is also a "plug-in" for Acrobat documents.
anchor
An anchor is an HTML tag which designates a link. It is a jump-off point to
another place or document on the internet.
button bar
A "button bar" is an informal way to refer to a standard set of links; they are
often shown as a graphical row of buttons at the top or bottom of a screen.
CGI
The Common Gateway Interface, or CGI, is a standard for
external gateway programs to interface with information servers such as a web
server. If any real-time user interaction is required, a CGI program must be
written. Any form on the web has a CGI program running in the background.
client/server
Computer technology that implements a system with two components, a client and
a server. When you want information from a computer on the internet, you are a
client. The computer that delivers the information is the server. A server both
stores information and makes it available to any authorized client who requests
the information. You may hear this term frequently, i.e. "You can't contact us
today because our web server is down." The World Wide Web is a client/server
based system.
document
A document can either refer to a logical collection of web pages, or is an
informal way to refer to a web page.
DTD
A Document Type Definition is a set of rules that defines
a particular type of file. Every subset of HTML (HTML 2.0, HTML 3.0, Netscape
Extensions) has an associated DTD.
Envoy
Envoy (by Tumbleweed Software Corporation), like Acrobat, enables the
electronic distribution of formatted documents. Some people publish Envoy
formatted documents to the internet. If you want to access these documents
from the web, you must download a copy of the Envoy reader software to your
desktop machine. This allows you to view documents on the internet exactly as
they were designed, including any special fonts, graphics, and layouts. A
plug-in for Envoy documents exists.
firewall
A combination of hardware and software that protects a local area network (LAN)
from internet hackers. It separates the network into two or more parts and
restricts outsiders to the area "outside" the firewall. Private or sensitive
information is kept "inside" the firewall.
forms
A feature of Netscape which permits a CGI program to capture user input through
a standard user interface.
frames
The new frames feature of Netscape Navigator 2.0 is a sophisticated
page-presentation capability that enables the display of multiple,
independently scrollable frames on a single screen, each with its own distinct
URL. Frames can point to different URLs as well as be targeted by other URLs -
all within the same screen. Developers can now incorporate banners, ledges,
tables of contents, and display panels into their designs, allowing users to
scroll through multiple sites simultaneously, submit database queries in one
frame and receive back instant results in another and even freeze regions of
the screen in place while the user scrolls through information on a page.
GIF
Graphics Interchange Format is a graphics file format
that is commonly used on the internet to provide graphics images in web pages.
helper applications
Programs external to your www browser, which allow extended functionality. For
example, if you want to hear sounds on the web, you must configure your web
browser to access a helper application, or program, that knows how to play
sounds to your desktop computer.
home page
A home page is a web page that is an upper level page for an organization,
project, or publication. For example, Dartmouth College has a home page, the
Dartmouth Library has a home page and the DCIS project has a home page.
HTML 2.0
If you want to be sure that the look of your HTML will be predictable on all
platforms and browsers, you should stick to HTML 2.0. HTML 2.0 is the
"approved" internet standard for HTML.
HTML 3.0
HTML 3.0 has been under development for some time and has still not been
approved by an internet standard committee. Most functions of HTML 3.0 have
become a de facto standard, and Netscape is trying to keep its extensions in
sync with the development of HTML 3.0.
HTML standards
HyperText Markup Language is a series of tags which
when added to documents allows for a degree of interactivity when viewing
documents through the appropriate viewer. The definition of HTML is constantly
being added to by an internet standards committee. Since the web has been so
quickly embraced by the commercial sector, a variety of software development
companies have been adding to HTML functionality. This causes much confusion
for writers of HTML code, since the definition of HTML is constantly changing.
The most recent approved standard is HTML 2.0.
HTTP
HyperText Transfer Protocol, is the procedure used
by the client and server to exchange data.
in-line image
An in-line image is an image that appears within a sentence, or within a line.
Text will wrap around the image.
indexing
Web documents can be indexed in a number of different ways; usually full-text
searching is possible when web documents are indexed. Indexing webpages would
allow a user to access a search engine to facilitate finding documents.
java applets
Netscape Navigator 2.0 supports Java applets which are powerful and secure
interactive objects created in a web-optimized language. Java applets can
enable animation, live updating, and two-way interaction.
JPEG
Joint Photographic Experts Group is the name of the
committee that designed the photographic image-compression standard. JPEG is
optimized for compressing full-color or gray-scale photographic-type, digital
images. It doesn't work well on drawn images such as line drawings, and it does
not handle black-and-white images or video images. Many web browsers can
handle JPEG images with the appropriate helper application installed, though a
GIF image is more common.
link
Links are a special HTML element used to indicate either the jumping off point
of a link (the blue text you click that activates it) or the end point of a
link (such as when you arrive into the middle of a document). Links are marked
with the <A> tag and can have either an HREF attribute or a NAME
attribute.
lynx
Lynx is a www browser for a terminal. It is a text only browser. It is
incapable of displaying graphics, and using some of the common Netscape
extensions (such as tables).
Mozilla DTD
A DTD which includes the Netscape HTML extensions.
navigation
Navigation is an informal term used to refer to moving between hypertext links
in an HTML document, sometimes referred to as "surfing".
Netscape
Netscape is one of many www browsers, or programs to access the www. Netscape
is the browser of choice at Dartmouth.
Netscape Extensions
(also see "HTML" definition) These are new functions, or extensions that have
been added to HTML and are understood by Netscape browsers. Some of these
functions include tables, more control over images, horizontal rules, lists,
and font size.
page
A page is an individual HTML file with a specific URL. Also referred to as a
home page, or a document
plug-ins
Plug-ins allow rich multimedia content to be incorporated into internet sites
and integrated into the Netscape Navigator platform, all without launching any
external helper applications. Some examples of plug-ins include Apple
QuickTime movies, Adobe Acrobat PDF documents Macromedia Director
presentations. This is a function of Netscape Navigator 2.0, and is not
supported by other web browsers.
relative addressing
Relative addressing is a way to specify URLs from within a document that refer
to other documents relative to where the original document resides. For
example, if you are working from a file called index.html which exists in the
directory (or folder) http://www.dartmouth.edu/Library/Info_Systems and you
want to refer to a file in the staff subdirectory (or folder) of Info_Systems,
a relative address would be specified as: staff/Doe/ rather than the absolute
address http://www.dartmouth.edu/Library/Info_Systems/staff/Doe/
script
A script, another name for a computer program, is usually written in Perl, a
C-like language. Scripts need to be written to incorporate functionality such
as automatic indexing, automatic "what's new" features, and a variety of other
specialized web applications.
SGML
Standard Generalized Markup Language is the
original markup language. HTML is a subset of SGML.
tables
Tables are a Netscape extension. The important point to note about tables is
not all HTML 2.0 browsers currently support them. The final HTML 3.0 DTD will
include tables in some form.
URL
A Universal Resource Locator is the address of a document
found on the internet. WWW documents have the form http://, gopher documents
have the form gopher://, ftp documents have the form ftp://, etc. The URL of
the Dartmouth College home page is: http://www.dartmouth.edu/
validation
Since users are accessing so many different types of web browsers, it is
important to realize that HTML code will be viewed differently from one browser
to the next. Programs have been written to allow a writer of HTML code to
validate an HTML document to verify that it complies with a specific DTD.
webmaster
Webmaster is a term used for the person that is responsible for a page on the
web. The webmaster is usually in charge of a subsection of the web and is the
person that updates the HTML code on a page, and deletes, adds and modifies
hypertext links as necessary. There will be multiple webmasters on a web
server. For example, there may be a webmaster for the top level library home
pages, a webmaster for the circulation department, and a webmaster for the
Kresge library.
webpage
A webpage is an HTML file that has a specific URL and is accessible via the
www. Sometimes referred to as a page, a document, or a home page.
WWW
The World Wide Web (also referred to as www or W3 or the
web) is an internet client-server distributed information and retrieval system
for world-wide hypertext linking of multimedia documents. The web is based
upon the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) that transfers hypertext documents
across a varied array of computer systems.
Creation date: May 1996
Created by: LOSC Web Page Standards and Guidelines Taskforce
Members:
Barbara DeFelice
Mary LaMarca
Tom Mead
Jennifer Merrill
Karen Sluzenski