A : Glossary

.au

common extension for audio files (myaudioclip.au)

.gif

the CompuServe Graphics Interchange Format--common extension for a graphics file (mygraphic.gif)

.html

the extension used on a file that is coded using HTML (myfile.html); see also HTML

.xbm

X-bitmapped (composed of dots or pixels) file format--common extension for a graphic file (mygraphic.xbm) (UNIX)

AIFF

a sound format

anchor

synonym for hyperlink

annotation

feature of NCSA Mosaic that lets you add a comment to a World Wide Web document being viewed

anonymous FTP

a process for document retrieval using the File Transfer Protocol (FTP); user logs on (as "anonymous") but does not need a password to access documents on the server

Archie

search device for documents on anonymous FTP server machines; the search matches filenames

AU

see .au

BinHex

a file format where binary data is converted into ASCII text (Macintosh)

browser

a World Wide Web client--that is, a software package that lets you to look around the World Wide Web (Web)

CERN

particle physics institute located in Geneva, Switzerland and originators of the World Wide Web

client

a computer running client software that connects to server machines running server software; the client makes requests to a server for documents and is responsible for displaying the information. NCSA Mosaic is an example of client software.

document

unit of information sent from servers to clients; a document may contain plain or formatted text, inlined graphics, sound, other multimedia data, or hyperlinks to other documents; often also referred to as a file

external viewer

a software program that NCSA Mosaic calls upon to view file formats it does not support internally

FAQ

Frequently Asked Question, usually presented as a list of questions and answers

FTP

File Transport Protocol, a protocol for transferring files between computers

GIF

see .gif

Gopher

menu-driven system on a server machine that presents the files available for retrieval in a hierarchical fashion; Gopher is considered particularly easy to use because of the menu system

Gopherspace

term for the interconnected Gopher servers

helper application

see external viewer (Macintosh)

history list

in NCSA Mosaic, a list of recently visited documents

home page

start-up document that serves as a starting point for Internet explorations

hotlist

a personalized online reference created and maintained by the user of important documents; a hotlist can be shared by mailing the file to another NCSA Mosaic user

HTML

HyperText Markup Language, the collection of styles used to define the various components of a hypertext document; see also .html

HTTP

Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the protocol used by Web servers

hyperlink

a word or graphic in a document with some form of highlighting (color, underlined, or both) that links to another document; the word or graphic represents hidden text containing the location of another document that is displayed when you click on the highlighted word or graphic

hypermedia

online information with text, images, audio, and animation associated in a nonlinear web of associations

inlined image

a graphic image that is displayed along with text in an NCSA Mosaic window

Internet

an international computer network connecting universities, research institutions, government agencies, and businesses

JPEG

Joint Photographic Expert Group, a compression/decompression standard for bitmapped images

link

see hyperlink

MIME

Multimedia Internet Mail Extensions, a format for including sound, images, animations and other types of data in an Internet email message

MPEG

Moving Pictures Experts Group, a movie format

NCSA Mosaic

a World Wide Web client developed by NCSA's Software Development Group; designed for information discovery and retrieval using the global Internet

NCSA

National Center for Supercomputing Applications on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the home of NCSA Mosaic

PostScript

A page description language developed by Adobe Systems and used for printing documents or displaying a document online using appropriate viewing software

PPP

point-to-point protocol, a method of connection to the Internet using a modem and phone lines

QuickTime

a movie format developed by Apple Computer

server

software that serves information to client software applications upon request

SLIP

Serial Line Internet Protocol, a method of connecting to the Internet using a modem and phone lines

SGML

Standard Generalized Markup Language, a language that defines the structure of a document and the logical relationship of its parts

source file

for NCSA Mosaic, the file that contains the HTML codes that Mosaic interprets for display in the Document View window

tags

formatting codes used in HTML (e.g., <H1> and </H1>, <P>)

TCP/IP

a protocol for communication between computers

TIFF

Tag Image File Format, a graphics format file type

UIUC

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

URL

Uniform Resource Locator, server and path information used in an HTML-coded source file to locate another document

Veronica

search device that matches filenames on Gopher servers

WAIS

Wide Area Information Server, an index and retrieval system; when you enter a keyword, a search is performed on indexed documents, which can then be retrieved

Web

another name for the World Wide Web

World Wide Web

a distributed hypertext-based information system developed at CERN

WWW

abbreviation for World Wide Web

XBM

see .xbm