Industry Specific Computer Terminology
Access (Microsoft Access)
Microsoft Access is a relational database management system from Microsoft that combines the relational Microsoft Jet Database Engine with a graphical user interface and software development tools.
ActiveMovie
ActiveMovie is a streaming media technology now known as DirectShow, developed by Microsoft to replace Video for Windows. ActiveMovie allows users to view media streams, whether distributed via the Internet, an intranet and CD-ROMs.
ActiveX
ActiveX, a component object model (COM) developed by Microsoft, runs in Windows environments. By using the COM run time, developers can create software components that perform a particular function or a set of functions. A software application can then compose one or more components in order to provide the functionality it intends to.
Address
A web address is a type of Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that specifies where an identified resource is available and the mechanism for retrieving it. In popular usage and in many technical documents and verbal discussions it is often, imprecisely and confusingly, used as a synonym for uniform resource identifier. The confusion in usage stems from historically different interpretations of the semantics of the terms involved.
Anchor
An anchor is the starting point or ending point of a hyperlink.
Anonymous FTP
A host that provides an FTP service may additionally provide Anonymous FTP access as well. Under this arrangement, users do not strictly need an account on the host. Instead the user typically enters ‘anonymous’ or ‘ftp’ when prompted for username. Although users are commonly asked to send their email address as their password, little to no verification is actually performed on the supplied data.
ANSI (American National Standards Institute)
The American National Standards Institute or ANSI is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organization also coordinates U.S. standards with international standards so that American products can be used worldwide. For example, standards make sure that people who own cameras can find the film they need for that camera anywhere around the globe.
ANSI C
ANSI C is the standard published by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for the C programming language. Software developers writing in C are encouraged to conform to the requirements in the document, as it encourages easily portable code.
ADO (ActiveX Data Object)
Microsoft’s ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) is a set of Component Object Model (COM) objects for accessing data sources. It provides a layer between programming languages and OLE DB (a means of accessing data stores, whether they be databases or otherwise, in a uniform manner). ADO allows a developer to write programs that access data without knowing how the database is implemented.
ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line)
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is a form of DSL, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice telephone call. A splitter – or microfilter – allows a single telephone connection to be used for both ADSL service and voice calls at the same time.
Amaya
Amaya is a free and open source WYSIWYG web authoring tool with browsing abilities, created by a structured editor project at Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA), a French national research institution, and later adopted by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. It is very lightweight, meaning it does not use many computer resources.
Anti-Virus Program
Antivirus software (or anti-virus) is computer software used to identify and remove computer viruses, as well as many other types of harmful computer software, collectively referred to as malware. While the first antivirus software was designed exclusively to combat computer viruses, most modern antivirus software can protect against a wide range of malware, including worms, rootkits, and Trojans.
Apache
The Apache HTTP Server, commonly referred to simply as Apache IPA: is a web server notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web. Apache was the first viable alternative to the Netscape Communications Corporation web server (currently known as Sun Java System Web Server), and has since evolved to rival other Unix-based web servers in terms of functionality and performance. The majority of all web servers using Apache are Linux web servers.
Applet
An applet is a software component that runs in the context of another program, for example a web browser. An applet usually performs a very narrow function that has no independent use. Hence, it is an application.
Archie
Archie is a tool for indexing FTP archives, allowing people to find specific files. It is considered to be the first Internet search engine.
API (Application Programming Interface)
An application programming interface (API) is a set of routines, data structures, object classes and/or protocols provided by libraries and/or operating system services in order to support the building of applications.
ARPAnet
The ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) developed by ARPA of the United States Department of Defense during the Cold War, was the world’s first operational packet switching network, and the predecessor of the global Internet.
Authentication
Authentication is the method used to verify the identity of a user, program or computer on the web.
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)
American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) is a coding standard that can be used for interchanging information, if the information is expressed mainly by the written form of English words. It is implemented as a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that work with text. Most modern character-encoding schemes—which support many more characters than did the original—have a historical basis in ASCII.
ASF (Advanced Streaming Format)
Advanced Systems Format (formerly Advanced Streaming Format, Active Streaming Format) is Microsoft’s proprietary digital audio/digital video container format, especially meant for streaming media. ASF is part of the Windows Media framework.
ASP (Active Server Pages)
Active Server Pages (ASP), also known as Classic ASP, was Microsoft’s first server-side script engine for dynamically-generated web pages. Initially released as an add-on to Internet Information Services (IIS) via the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack, it was subsequently included as a free component of Windows Server (since the initial release of Windows 2000 Server).
ASX (ASF Streaming Redirector)
The Advanced Stream Redirector (ASX) format is a type of XML metafile designed to store a list of Windows Media files to play during a multimedia presentation.
AVI (Audio Video Interleave)
Audio Video Interleave, known by its acronym AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology. AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback.
Banner Ad
A web banner or banner ad is a form of advertising on the World Wide Web. This form of online advertising entails embedding an advertisement into a web page. It is intended to attract traffic to a website by linking to the website of the advertiser.
Bandwidth
In computer networking and computer science, digital bandwidth, network bandwidth or just bandwidth is a measure of available or consumed data communication resources expressed in bit/s or multiples of it (kbit/s, Mbit/s etc).
Baud
In telecommunications and electronics, baud is synonymous to symbols/s or pulses/s. It is the unit of symbol rate, also known as baud rate or modulation rate; the number of distinct symbol changes (signaling events) made to the transmission medium per second in a digitally modulated signal or a line code. The baud rate is related to but should not be confused with gross bit rate expressed in bit/s.
BBS (Bulletin Board System)
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and login to the system using a terminal program. Originally BBSes were accessed only over a phone line using a modem, but by the early 1990s some BBSes allowed access via a Telnet, packet switched network, or packet radio connection.
Binary Data
A binary file (.bin) is a computer file which may contain any type of data, encoded in binary form for computer storage and processing purposes; for example, computer document files containing formatted text. Many binary file formats contain parts that can be interpreted as text; binary files that contain only textual data – without, for example, any formatting information – are called plain text files.
Bit (Binary Digit)
A bit is a binary digit, taking a value of either 0 or 1. Binary digits are a basic unit of information storage and communication in digital computing and digital information theory. Information theory also often uses the natural digit, called either a nit or a nat. Quantum computing also uses qubits, a single piece of information with a probability of being true.
Bookmark
Internet bookmarks are stored Web page locations (URLs) that can be retrieved. As a feature of all modern Internet web browsers, their primary purpose is to easily catalog and access web pages that a user has visited and chosen to save.
BPS (Bits Per Second)
In telecommunications and computing, bitrate (sometimes written bit rate, data rate or as a variable R or fb) is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time.
Browser
A Web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music, games and other information typically located on a Web page at a Web site on the World Wide Web or a local area network.
Byte (Binary Term)
A byte is a basic unit of measurement of information storage in computer science. In many computer architectures it is a unit of memory addressing. There is no standard but a byte most often consists of eight bits.
Case Sensitive
Text sometimes exhibits case sensitivity; that is, words can differ in meaning based on differing use of uppercase and lowercase letters. Words with capital letters don’t always have the same meaning when written with lowercase letters. For example, Bill is the first name of former U.S. president Bill Clinton, who could sign a bill (which is a proposed law that was approved by Congress). And a Polish person can use polish to clean something.
Cache
In computer science, a cache is a collection of data duplicating original values stored elsewhere or computed earlier, where the original data is expensive to fetch (owing to longer access time) or to compute, compared to the cost of reading the cache.
Chat
Online chat can refer to any kind of communication over the Internet, but is primarily meant to refer to direct one-on-one chat or text-based group chat (formally also known as synchronous conferencing), using tools such as instant messengers, Internet Relay Chat, talkers and possibly MUDs.
CGI (Common Gateway Interface)
The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a standard protocol for interfacing external application software with an information server, commonly a web server.
Client
A Web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music, games and other information typically located on a Web page at a Web site on the World Wide Web or a local area network.
Client/Server
The client-server software architecture model distinguishes client systems from server systems, which communicate over a computer network. A client-server application is a distributed system comprising both client and server software. A client software process may initiate a communication session, while the server waits for requests from any client.
Clickthrough Rate
Click-through rate or CTR is a way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign. A CTR is obtained by dividing the number of users who clicked on an ad on a web page by the number of times the ad was delivered (impressions). For example, if a banner ad was delivered 100 times (impressions delivered) and one person clicked on it (clicks recorded), then the resulting CTR would be 1 percent.
Codec (Compressor / Decompressor)
A codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding and/or decoding a digital data stream or signal. The word codec is a portmanteau of ‘compressor-decompressor’ or, most commonly, ‘coder-decoder’.
Communication Protocol
In the field of telecommunications, a communications protocol is the set of standard rules for data representation, signaling, authentication and error detection required to send information over a communications channel.
Compression
In computer science and information theory, data compression or source coding is the process of encoding information using fewer bits (or other information-bearing units) than an unencoded representation would use through use of specific encoding schemes.
Computer Virus
A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without the permission or knowledge of the owner. The term “virus” is also commonly but erroneously used to refer to other types of malware, adware and spyware programs that do not have the reproductive ability.
Cookie
HTTP cookies, more commonly referred to as Web cookies, tracking cookies or just cookies, are parcels of text sent by a server to a Web client (usually a browser) and then sent back unchanged by the client each time it accesses that server.
ColdFusion
ColdFusion is an application server and software language used for Internet application development[1] such as for dynamically-generated web sites. In this regard, ColdFusion is a similar product to Microsoft Active Server Pages, JavaServer Pages or PHP. ColdFusion was the first amongst these technologies to provide the developer the capability of creating dynamic websites that were attached to a backend database.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation (that is, the look and formatting) of a document written in a markup language. Its most common application is to style web pages written in HTML and XHTML, but the language can be applied to any kind of XML document, including SVG and XUL.
Database
A database is a structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system. The structure is achieved by organizing the data according to a database model. The model in most common use today is the relational model. Other models such as the hierarchical model and the network model use a more explicit representation of relationships.
Database System
A database system is a term that is typically used to encapsulate the constructs of a data model, database Management system (DBMS) and database.
DB2
DB2 is one of IBM’s families of relational database management system (RDBMS) software products within IBM’s broader Information Management Software line.
DBA (Data Base Administrator)
A database administrator (DBA) is a person who is responsible for the environmental aspects of a database. The role of a database administrator has changed according to the technology of database management systems (DBMSs) as well as the needs of the owners of the databases.
DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a network application protocol used by devices (DHCP clients) to obtain configuration information for operation in an Internet Protocol network. This protocol reduces system administration workload, allowing devices to be added to the network with little or no manual intervention.
DHTML (Dynamic HTML)
Dynamic HTML, or DHTML, is a collection of technologies used together to create interactive and animated web sites by using a combination of a static markup language (such as HTML), a client-side scripting language (such as JavaScript), a presentation definition language (such as CSS), and the Document Object Model.
Dial-up Connection
Dial-up Internet Access is a form of Internet access via telephone lines. The user’s computer or router uses an attached modem connected to a telephone line to dial into an Internet service provider’s (ISP) node to establish a modem-to-modem link, which is then used to route Internet Protocol packets between the user’s equipment and hosts on the Internet.
DNS (Domain Name Service)
The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical naming system for computers, services, or any resource participating in the Internet. It associates various information with domain names assigned to such participants. Most importantly, it translates domain names meaningful to humans into the numerical (binary) identifiers associated with networking equipment for the purpose of locating and addressing these devices world-wide.
DNS Server
Internet name servers implement the Domain Name System (DNS) protocol. Name servers also exist on some Microsoft Windows networks where one host can take the role of NetBIOS Master Browser and act as a NBNS server. Small local networks of Windows systems require no central name server, and generally perform name-resolution using broadcasts.
DOM (Document Object Model)
The Document Object Model (DOM) is a platform- and language-independent standard object model for representing HTML or XML documents as well as an Application Programming Interface (API) for querying, traversing and manipulating such documents.
Download
In networks, uploading and downloading refer to the two canonical directions (corresponding to send and receive) that information can move, and further defines such data as being copied and compiled (indicated by the term “loading”) to create a complete file, after a period of time.
DSL (Digital Subscriber Line)
DSL or xDSL, is a family of technologies that provides digital data transmission over the wires of a local telephone network.
DTD (Document Type Definition)
Document Type Definition (DTD) is one of several SGML and XML schema languages, and is also the term used to describe a document or portion thereof that is authored in the DTD language.
Dynamic IP
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a network application protocol used by devices (DHCP clients) to obtain configuration information for operation in an Internet Protocol network. This protocol reduces system administration workload, allowing devices to be added to the network with little or no manual intervention.
E-mail (Electronic Mail)
Electronic mail—often abbreviated as e-mail or email—is any method of creating, transmitting, or storing primarily text-based human communications with digital communications systems.
E-mail Server
A mail transfer agent (MTA) (also called a mail transport agent, message transfer agent, or smtpd (short for SMTP daemon), is a computer program or software agent that transfers electronic mail messages from one computer to another.
Encryption
In cryptography, encryption is the process of transforming information (referred to as plaintext) using an algorithm (called cipher) to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key.
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of frame-based computer networking technologies for local area networks (LANs). The name comes from the physical concept of the ether.
Firewall
A firewall is an integrated collection of security measures designed to prevent unauthorized electronic access to a networked computer system. It is also a device or set of devices configured to permit, deny, encrypt, decrypt, or proxy all computer traffic between different security domains based upon a set of rules and other criteria.
Flash
Adobe Flash (previously called Macromedia Flash) is a multimedia platform originally acquired by Macromedia and currently developed and distributed by Adobe Systems. Since its introduction in 1996, Flash has become a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to web pages; Flash is commonly used to create animation, advertisements, and various web page components, to integrate video into web pages, and more recently, to develop rich Internet applications.
Form
A webform on a web page allows a user to enter data that is sent to a server for processing. Webforms resemble paper forms because internet users fill out the forms using checkboxes, radio buttons, or text fields. For example, webforms can be used to enter shipping or credit card data to order a product or can be used to retrieve data (e.g., searching on a search engine).
Forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site. It is the modern equivalent of a traditional bulletin board, and a technological evolution of the dialup bulletin board system. From a technological standpoint, forums or boards are web applications managing user-generated content.
Frame
On a web page, framing means that a website can be organized into frames. Each frame displays a different HTML document. Headers and sidebar menus do not move when the content frame is scrolled up and down. For developers frames can also be convenient.
FrontPage
Microsoft FrontPage (later full name Microsoft Office FrontPage) is a WYSIWYG HTML editor and web site administration tool from Microsoft for the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a network protocol used to transfer data from one computer to another through a network such as the Internet.
Gateway
Gateway’ is a phrase used by webmasters and search engine optimizers to describe a webpage designed to attract visitors and search engines to a particular website. A typical gateway page is small, simple and highly optimized. Its primary goal is to attract visitors searching for relevant key words or phrases, and provide hyperlinks to pages within the website.
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)
The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) is a bitmap image format that was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and has since come into widespread usage on the World Wide Web due to its wide support and portability.
GB
Gigabit is a unit of digital information storage, with the symbol Gbit (or Gb). 1 gigabit = 109 = 1,000,000,000 bits (which is equal to 125 decimal megabytes or 122 binary mebibytes, as 8 bits equals one byte).
Hits
A hit is a request to a web server for a file (web page, image, JavaScript, Cascading Style Sheet, etc.). When a web page is uploaded from a server the number of “hits” or “page hits” is equal to the number of files requested.
Home Page
The homepage (often written as home page) is the URL or local file that automatically loads when a web browser starts or when the browser’s “home” button is pressed.
Host
A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to provide their own website accessible via the World Wide Web.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
HTML, an initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for Web pages. It provides a means to describe the structure of text-based information in a document—by denoting certain text as links, headings, paragraphs, lists, and so on—and to supplement that text with interactive forms, embedded images, and other objects.
HTML Editor
An HTML editor is a software application for creating web pages. Although the HTML markup of a web page can be written with any text editor, specialized HTML editors can offer convenience and added functionality.
HTML Tags
In computing, an HTML element indicates structure in an HTML document and a way of hierarchically arranging content. More specifically, an HTML element is an SGML element that meets the requirements of one or more of the HTML Document Type Definitions (DTDs). These elements have properties: both attributes and content, as specified (both allowable and required) according to the appropriate HTML DTD (for example, the HTML 4.01 strict DTD). Elements may represent headings, paragraphs, hypertext links, lists, embedded media, and a variety of other structures.
HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol)
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application-level protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. Its use for retrieving inter-linked resources led to the establishment of the World Wide Web.
HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure)
Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is a combination of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol and a network security protocol.
Hyperlink
In computing, a hyperlink, usually shortened to link, is a directly followable reference within a hypertext document.
Hypermedia
Hypermedia is used as a logical extension of the term hypertext in which graphics, audio, video, plain text and hyperlinks intertwine to create a generally non-linear medium of information.
Hypertext
Hypertext is text, displayed on a computer, with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately follow, usually by a mouse click or keypress sequence. Apart from running text, hypertext may contain tables, images and other presentational devices.
IAB (Internet Architecture Board)
The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) is the committee charged with oversight of the technical and engineering development of the Internet by the Internet Society (ISOC).
IE (Internet Explorer)
Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer; abbreviated MSIE, commonly abbreviated to IE), is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems starting in 1995. It has been the most widely used web browser since 1999, attaining a peak of about 95% usage share during 2002 and 2003 with IE5 and IE6. That percentage share has since declined in the face of renewed competition from other web browsers — Mozilla Firefox most of all. Microsoft spent over $100 million a year on IE in the late 1990s, with over 1,000 people working on it by 1999.
IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force)
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) develops and promotes Internet standards, cooperating closely with the W3C and ISO/IEC standard bodies and dealing in particular with standards of the TCP/IP and Internet protocol suite. It is an open standards organization, with no formal membership or membership requirements.
IIS (Internet Information Server)
Internet Information Services (IIS) – formerly called Internet Information Server – is a set of Internet-based services for servers created by Microsoft for use with Microsoft Windows.
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)
The Internet Message Access Protocol or IMAP is one of the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for e-mail retrieval, the other being POP3. Virtually all modern e-mail clients and servers support both protocols as a means of transferring e-mail messages from a server, such as those used by Gmail, to a client, such as Mozilla Thunderbird, Apple Mail and Microsoft Outlook.
Indeo
Indeo Video (commonly known now simply as “Indeo”) is a video codec developed by Intel in 1992. It was sold to Ligos Corporation in 2000. While its original version was related to Intel’s DVI video stream format, a hardware-only codec for the compression of television-quality video onto compact disks, Indeo was distinguished by being one of the first codecs allowing full-speed video playback without using hardware acceleration.
Internet Browser
A Web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music, games and other information typically located on a Web page at a Web site on the World Wide Web or a local area network.
Internet Explorer
Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer; abbreviated MSIE, commonly abbreviated to IE), is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems starting in 1995. It has been the most widely used web browser since 1999, attaining a peak of about 95% usage share during 2002 and 2003 with IE5 and IE6. That percentage share has since declined in the face of renewed competition from other web browsers — Mozilla Firefox most of all. Microsoft spent over $100 million a year on IE[1] in the late 1990s, with over 1,000 people working on it by 1999.
Intranet
An intranet is a private computer network that uses Internet technologies to securely share any part of an organization’s information or operational systems with its employees. Sometimes the term refers only to the organization’s internal website, but often it is a more extensive part of the organization’s computer infrastructure and private websites are an important component and focal point of internal communication and collaboration.
IP (Internet Protocol)
The Internet Protocol (IP) is a protocol used for communicating data across a packet-switched internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite, also referred to as TCP/IP.
IP Address (Internet Protocol Address)
An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a numerical identification (logical address) that is assigned to devices participating in a computer network utilizing the Internet Protocol for communication between its nodes.[1] Although IP addresses are stored as binary numbers, they are usually displayed in human-readable notations, such as 208.77.188.166 (for IPv4), and 2001:db8:0:1234:0:567:1:1 (for IPv6).
IRC (Internet Relay Chat)
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of real-time Internet text messaging (chat) or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message, as well as chat and data transfers via Direct Client-to-Client.
ISAPI (Internet Server API)
The Internet Server Application Programming Interface (ISAPI) is an N-tier API of Internet Information Services (IIS), Microsoft’s collection of Windows-based web server services. The most prominent application of IIS and ISAPI is Microsoft’s web server.
ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network)
Integrated Services Digital Network is a telephone system network. Prior to the ISDN, the phone system was viewed as a way to transport voice, with some special services available for data. The key feature of the ISDN is that it integrates speech and data on the same lines, adding features that were not available in the classic telephone system. There are several kinds of access interfaces to the ISDN defined: Basic Rate Interface (BRI), Primary Rate Interface (PRI) and Broadband-ISDN (B-ISDN).
ISP (Internet Service Provider)
An Internet service provider (ISP, also called Internet access provider or IAP) is a company that offers its customers access to the Internet. The ISP connects to its customers using a data transmission technology appropriate for delivering Internet Protocol datagrams, such as dial-up, DSL, cable modem or dedicated high-speed interconnects.
JavaScript
JavaScript is a scripting language widely used for client-side web development. It was the originating dialect of the ECMAScript standard. It is a dynamic, weakly typed, prototype-based language with first-class functions. JavaScript was influenced by many languages and was designed to look like Java, but be easier for non-programmers to work with.
JPEG
In computing, JPEG is a commonly used method of compression for photographic images. The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality.
JSP (Java Server Pages)
JavaServer Pages (JSP) is a Java technology that allows software developers to create dynamically-generated web sites, with HTML, XML, or other document types, in response to a Web client request. The technology allows Java code and certain pre-defined actions to be embedded into static content.
KB
Kilobyte (derived from the SI prefix “kilo-“, meaning 1,000) is a unit of digital information storage equal to either 1,024 bytes (210) or 1,000 bytes (103), depending on context.
Keyword
In computer programming, a keyword is a word or identifier that has a particular meaning to the programming language. The meaning of keywords — and, indeed, the meaning of the notion of keyword — differs widely from language to language.
LAN (Local Area Network)
A local area network (LAN) is a computer network covering a small physical area, like a home, office, or small group of buildings, such as a school, or an airport. The defining characteristics of LANs, in contrast to wide-area networks (WANs), include their usually higher data-transfer rates, smaller geographic range, and lack of a need for leased telecommunication lines.
Linux
Linux is a generic term referring to Unix-like computer operating systems based on the Linux kernel. Their development is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed by anyone under the terms of the GNU GPL and other free licenses.
MB
Megabyte is a SI-multiple (see prefix mega-) of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission and is equal to 106 (1,000,000) bytes. However, due to historical usage in computer-related fields it is still often used to represent 220 (1024×1024 or 1,048,576) bytes. In rare cases, it is used to mean 1000×1024 (1,024,000) bytes. It is commonly abbreviated as Mbyte or MB (compare Mb, for the megabit).
Meta Data
Metadata (meta data, or sometimes metainformation) is “data about other data”, of any sort in any media. An item of metadata may describe an individual datum, or content item, or a collection of data including multiple content items and hierarchical levels, for example a database schema.
Meta Search
A meta-search engine is a search tool that sends user requests to several other search engines and/or databases and aggregates the results into a single list or displays them according to their source. Metasearch engines enable users to enter search criteria once and access several search engines simultaneously.
Meta Tags
Meta elements are HTML or XHTML elements used to provide structured metadata about a Web page. Such elements must be placed as tags in the head section of an HTML or XHTML document. Meta elements can be used to specify page description, keywords and any other metadata not provided through the other head elements and attributes.
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)
MIDI is an industry-standard protocol defined in 1982 that enables electronic musical instruments such as keyboard controllers, computers, and other electronic equipment to communicate, control, and synchronize with each other.
MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of e-mail to support text in character sets other than ASCII, non-text attachments, message bodies with multiple parts and header information in non-ASCII character sets.
MySQL
MySQL is a relational database management system (RDBMS) which has more than 11 million installations. The program runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases.
NetBIOS (Network Basic Input Output System)
NetBIOS is an acronym for Network Basic Input/Output System. It provides services related to the session layer of the OSI model allowing applications on separate computers to communicate over a local area network. As strictly an API, NetBIOS is not a networking protocol.
OS (Operating System)
An operating system (commonly abbreviated to either OS or O/S) is an interface between hardware and user; it is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the limited resources of the computer.
Page Impressions
A page view (PV) or page impression is a request to load a single page of an Internet site. On the World Wide Web a page request would result from a web surfer clicking on a link on another HTML page pointing to the page in question. This should be contrasted with a hit, which refers to a request for a file from a web server. There may therefore be many hits per page view.
PDF (Portable Document Format)
Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 for document exchange. PDF is used for representing two-dimensional documents in a manner independent of the application software, hardware, and operating system.
Perl (Practical Extraction and Reporting Language)
In computer programming, Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall, a linguist working as a systems administrator for NASA, in 1987, as a general purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier.
PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor)
PHP is a scripting language originally designed for producing dynamic web pages. It has evolved to include a command line interface capability and can be used in standalone graphical applications.
Ping
Ping is a computer network tool used to test whether a particular host is reachable across an IP network; it is also used to self test the network interface card of the computer, or as a speed test.
Platform
In computing, a platform describes some sort of hardware architecture or software framework (including application frameworks), that allows software to run. Typical platforms include a computer’s architecture, operating system, programming languages and related runtime libraries or graphical user interface.
Plug-In
In computing, a plug-in (also: plugin, addin, add-in, addon, add-on, snap-in or snapin; but see also extension) consists of a computer program that interacts with a host application (a web browser or an email client, for example) to provide a certain, usually very specific, function “on demand”. Applications support plugins for many reasons.
PNG (Portable Network Graphics)
Portable Network Graphics (PNG) is a bitmapped image format that employs lossless data compression. PNG was created to improve upon and replace GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) as an image-file format not requiring a patent license.
POP (Post Office Protocol)
In computing, the Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) is an application-layer Internet standard protocol used by local e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection.
Port
In computer hardware, a ‘port’ serves as an interface between the computer and other computers or peripheral devices. Physically, a port is a specialized outlet on a piece of equipment to which a plug or cable connects.
PPP (Point to Point Protocol)
In networking, the Point-to-Point Protocol, or PPP, is a data link protocol commonly used to establish a direct connection between two networking nodes. It can provide connection authentication and can also provide transmission encryption privacy and compression.
Proxy Server
In computer networks, a proxy server is a server (a computer system or an application program) that acts as a go-between for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers. A client connects to the proxy server, requesting some service, such as a file, connection, web page, or other resource, available from a different server.
QuickTime
QuickTime is a multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, media clips, sound, text, animation, music, and interactive panoramic images.
RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks)
RAID is an acronym first defined by David A. Patterson, Garth A. Gibson and Randy Katz at the University of California, Berkeley in 1987 to describe a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks[1], a technology that allowed computer users to achieve high levels of storage reliability from low-cost and less reliable PC-class disk-drive components, via the technique of arranging the devices into arrays for redundancy.
RDF (Resource Description Framework)
The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a family of World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) specifications originally designed as a metadata data model. It has come to be used as a general method for conceptual description or modeling, of information that is implemented in web resources; using a variety of syntax formats.
Real Audio
RealAudio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks. It uses a variety of audio codecs, ranging from low-bitrate formats that can be used over dialup modems, to high-fidelity formats for music. It can also be used as a streaming audio format, that is played at the same time as it is downloaded.
Real Video
RealVideo is a proprietary video format developed by RealNetworks. It was first released in 1997 and as of 2008 is at version 11. RealVideo is supported on many platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, and several mobile phones.
Redirect
In computing, redirection is a function common to most command-line interpreters, including the various Unix shells that can redirect standard streams to user-specified locations.
RGB (Red Green Blue)
The RGB color model is an additive color model in which red, green, and blue light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors. The name of the model comes from the initials of the three additive primary colors, red, green, and blue.
Robot
Internet bots, also known as web robots, WWW robots or simply bots, are software applications that run automated tasks over the Internet. Typically, bots perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive, at a much higher rate than would be possible for a human alone.
Router
A router is a networking device whose software and hardware are usually tailored to the tasks of routing and forwarding information. For example, on the Internet, information is directed to various paths by routers.
Schema
An XML schema is a description of a type of XML document, typically expressed in terms of constraints on the structure and content of documents of that type, above and beyond the basic syntactical constraints imposed by XML itself. An XML schema provides a view of the document type at a relatively high level of abstraction.
Script
A scripting language, script language or extension language is a programming language that allows some control of a single or many software application(s). “Scripts” are often treated as distinct from “programs”, which execute independently from any other application. At the same time they are distinct from the core code of the application, which is usually written in a different language, and by being accessible to the end-user they enable the behavior of the application to be adapted to the user’s needs.
Search Engine
A Web search engine is a tool designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. The information may consist of web pages, images, information and other types of files.
Semantic Web
The Semantic Web is an evolving extension of the World Wide Web in which the semantics of information and services on the web is defined, making it possible for the web to understand and satisfy the requests of people and machines to use the web content.
Server
A computer that is responsible for accepting HTTP requests from clients (user agents such as web browsers), and serving them HTTP responses along with optional data contents, which usually are web pages such as HTML documents and linked objects (images, etc.).
Shareware
The term shareware refers to copyrighted commercial software that is distributed without payment on a trial basis and is limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience.
Shockwave
Adobe Shockwave (formerly Macromedia Shockwave) was Macromedia’s first and most successful multimedia player prior to the introduction of Macromedia Flash (now Adobe Flash). It allows Adobe Director applications to be published on the Internet and viewed in a web browser by anyone who has the Shockwave plug-in installed.
SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language)
The Standard Generalized Markup Language (ISO 8879:1986 SGML) is an ISO Standard metalanguage in which one can define markup languages for documents.
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is an Internet standard for electronic mail (e-mail) transmission across Internet Protocol (IP) networks. SMTP was first defined in RFC 821 (STD 10), and last updated by RFC 5321 (2008), which describes the protocol in widespread use today, also known as extended SMTP (ESMTP).
SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)
SOAP, originally defined as Simple Object Access Protocol, is a protocol specification for exchanging structured information in the implementation of Web Services in computer networks. It relies on Extensible Markup Language (XML) as its message format, and usually relies on other Application Layer protocols (most notably Remote Procedure Call (RPC) and HTTP) for message negotiation and transmission.
Solaris
OpenSolaris is an open source operating system based on Sun Microsystems’ Solaris. It is also the name of the project initiated by Sun to build a developer and user community around it.
SPAM
Spam is the abuse of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately. While the most widely recognized form of spam is e-mail spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media: instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, wiki spam, Online classified ads spam, mobile phone messaging spam, Internet forum spam, junk fax transmissions, and file sharing network spam.
Spider
A Web crawler is a computer program that browses the World Wide Web in a methodical, automated manner. Other terms for Web crawlers are ants, automatic indexers, bots, and worms or Web spider, Web robot, or—especially in the FOAF community—Web scutter.
Spoofing
Website spoofing is the act of creating a website, as a hoax, with the intention of misleading readers that the website has been created by a different person or organisation. Normally, the website will adopt the design of the target website and sometimes has a similar URL.
Spyware
Spyware is computer software that is installed surreptitiously on a personal computer to intercept or take partial control over the user’s interaction with the computer, without the user’s informed consent.
SQL (Structured Query Language)
SQL (Structured Query Language) is a database computer language designed for the retrieval and management of data in relational database management systems (RDBMS), database schema creation and modification, and database object access control management.
SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database management system (RDBMS) produced by Microsoft. Its primary query languages are ANSI SQL and T-SQL.
SSI (Server Side Include)
Server Side Includes (SSI) is a simple server-side scripting language used almost exclusively for the web. As its name implies, its primary use is including the contents of one file into another one dynamically when the latter is served by a web server.
SSL (Secure Socket Layer)
Transport Layer Security (TLS) and its predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), are cryptographic protocols that provide security and data integrity for communications over TCP/IP networks such as the Internet. TLS and SSL encrypt the segments of network connections at the Transport Layer end-to-end.
Static IP (address)
An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a numerical identification (logical address) that is assigned to devices participating in a computer network utilizing the Internet Protocol for communication between its nodes. Although IP addresses are stored as binary numbers, they are usually displayed in human-readable notations, such as 208.77.188.166 (for IPv4), and 2001:db8:0:1234:0:567:1:1 (for IPv6).
Streaming
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by, and normally presented to, an end-user while it is being delivered by a streaming provider (the term “presented” is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback).
SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is a family of specifications of XML-based file format for describing two-dimensional vector graphics, both static and dynamic (interactive or animated).
Tag
A tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information (such as an internet bookmark, digital image, or computer file). This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching.
TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)
The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is one of the core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite. TCP is so central that the entire suite is often referred to as “TCP/IP”. Whereas IP handles lower-level transmissions from computer to computer as a message makes its way across the Internet, TCP operates at a higher level, concerned only with the two end systems, for example a Web browser and a Web server.
Trojan Horse
The Trojan Horse refers to the stratagem that allowed the Greeks to finally enter the city of Troy during the Trojan War. In the best-known version of this Bronze Age story, after a fruitless 10-year siege of Troy, the Greeks built a huge figure of a horse, in which a select force of men hid.
UDDI (Universal Description Discovery and Integration)
Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) is a platform-independent, Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based registry for businesses worldwide to list themselves on the Internet. UDDI is an open industry initiative, sponsored by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), enabling businesses to publish service listings and discover each other and define how the services or software applications interact over the Internet.
Unix
Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX, sometimes also written as Unix with small caps) is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna. Today’s Unix systems are split into various branches, developed over time by AT&T as well as various commercial vendors and non-profit organizations.
UNZIP
The ZIP file format is a data compression and archive format. A ZIP file contains one or more files that have been compressed to reduce file size, or stored as-is. The process of compressing the document(s) into a zip file is also known as deep-packing. The ZIP file format permits a number of compression algorithms, but as of 2009, only Deflate is widely used and supported.
Upload
In networks, uploading and downloading refer to the two canonical directions (corresponding to send and receive) that information can move, and further defines such data as being copied and compiled (indicated by the term “loading”) to create a complete file, after a period of time. Downloading is distinguished from the related concept of streaming, which indicates a download in which the data is sequentially usable as it downloads, or “streams,” and that (typically) the data is not stored.
URI (Uniform Resource Identifier)
In computing, a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) consists of a string of characters used to identify or name a resource on the Internet. Such identification enables interaction with representations of the resource over a network, typically the World Wide Web, using specific protocols. URIs are defined in schemes specifying a specific syntax and associated protocols.
URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
In computing, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a type of Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that specifies where an identified resource is available and the mechanism for retrieving it. In popular usage and in many technical documents and verbal discussions it is often, imprecisely and confusingly, used as a synonym for uniform resource identifier.
USENET
Usenet, a portmanteau of “user” and “network”, is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It evolved from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.
User Agent
A user agent is the client application used with a particular network protocol; the phrase is most commonly used in reference to those which access the World Wide Web, but other systems such as SIP use the term user agent to refer to the user’s phone.
VB (Visual Basic)
Visual Basic (VB) is the third-generation event-driven programming language and integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft for its COM programming model. VB is also considered a relatively easy to learn and use programming language, because of its graphical development features and BASIC heritage.
VBScript
VBScript (short for Visual Basic Scripting Edition) is an Active Scripting language, developed by Microsoft, which uses the Component Object Model to access elements of the environment within which it’s running (e.g. FileSystemObject or FSO used to create, read, update and delete files).
Virus
A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without the permission or knowledge of the owner. The term “virus” is also commonly but erroneously used to refer to other types of malware, adware and spyware programs that do not have the reproductive ability.
Visual Basic
Visual Basic (VB) is the third-generation event-driven programming language and integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft for its COM programming model. VB is also considered a relatively easy to learn and use programming language, because of its graphical development features and BASIC heritage.
VPN (Virtual Private Network)
A virtual private network (VPN) is a computer network in which some of the links between nodes are carried by open connections or virtual circuits in some larger network (e.g., the Internet) as opposed to running across a single private network. The link-layer protocols of the virtual network are said to be tunneled through the larger network.
VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language)
VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language, pronounced vermal or by its initials, originally — before 1995 — known as the Virtual Reality Markup Language) is a standard file format for representing 3-dimensional (3D) interactive vector graphics, designed particularly with the World Wide Web in mind. It has been superseded by X3D.
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web (abbreviated WWW or W3). It is arranged as a consortium where member organizations maintain full-time staff for the purpose of working together in the development of standards for the World Wide Web.
WAN (Wide Area Network)
Wide Area Network (WAN) is a computer network that covers a broad area (i.e., any network whose communications links cross metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries). Contrast with personal area networks (PANs), local area networks (LANs), campus area networks (CANs), or metropolitan area networks (MANs) which are usually limited to a room, building, campus or specific metropolitan area (e.g., a city) respectively. The largest and most well-known example of a WAN is the Internet.
WAP (Wireless Application Protocol)
Wireless Application Protocol (commonly referred to as WAP) is an open international standard for application layer network communications in a wireless communication environment. Its main use is to enable access to the Internet (HTTP) from a mobile phone or PDA.
Web Address
In computing, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a type of Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that specifies where an identified resource is available and the mechanism for retrieving it. In popular usage and in many technical documents and verbal discussions it is often, imprecisely and confusingly, used as a synonym for uniform resource identifier.
Web Browser
A Web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music, games and other information typically located on a Web page at a Web site on the World Wide Web or a local area network. Text and images on a Web page can contain hyperlinks to other Web pages at the same or different Web site. Web browsers allow a user to quickly and easily access information provided on many Web pages at many Web sites by traversing these links. Web browsers format HTML information for display, so the appearance of a Web page may differ between browsers.
Web Form
A webform on a web page allows a user to enter data that is sent to a server for processing. Webforms resemble paper forms because internet users fill out the forms using checkboxes, radio buttons, or text fields. For example, webforms can be used to enter shipping or credit card data to order a product or can be used to retrieve data (e.g., searching on a search engine).
Web Hosting
A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to provide their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center.
Web Page
A web page or webpage is a resource of information that is suitable for the World Wide Web and can be accessed through a web browser. This information is usually in HTML or XHTML format, and may provide navigation to other web pages via hypertext links.
Web Robot
Internet bots, also known as web robots, WWW robots or simply bots, are software applications that run automated tasks over the Internet. Typically, bots perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive, at a much higher rate than would be possible for a human alone. The largest use of bots is in web spidering, in which an automated script fetches, analyses and files information from web servers at many times the speed of a human. Each server can have a file called robots.txt, containing rules for the spidering of that server that the bot is supposed to obey.
Web Services
A Web service (also Web Service) is defined by the W3C as “a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network”. Web services are frequently just Web application programming interfaces (API) that can be accessed over a network, such as the Internet, and executed on a remote system hosting the requested services. Other approaches with nearly the same functionality are Object Management Group’s (OMG) Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), Microsoft’s Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) or SUN’s Java/Remote Method Invocation (RMI).
Web Site
A website (or “web site”) is a collection of related web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that are hosted on one web server, usually accessible via the Internet.
Web Spider
A Web crawler is a computer program that browses the World Wide Web in a methodical, automated manner. Other terms for Web crawlers are ants, automatic indexers, bots, and worms or Web spider, Web robot, or—especially in the FOAF community—Web scutter.
Wildcard
In computer (software) technology, a wildcard character can be used to substitute for any other character or characters in a string. The asterisk (*) usually substitutes as a wildcard character for any zero or more characters, and the question mark (?) usually substitutes as a wildcard character for any one character, as in the command line interpreters of CP/M, DOS, Microsoft Windows and Unix-like operating systems.
Windows Media
Windows Media is a multimedia framework for media creation and distribution for Microsoft Windows. It consists of a software development kit with several application programming interfaces and a number of prebuilt technologies, and is the replacement of NetShow technologies.
WINZIP
WinZip is a proprietary file archiver and compressor for Microsoft Windows, developed by WinZip Computing (formerly Nico Mak Computing). It natively uses the PKZIP format but also has various levels of support for other archive formats.
WMA
Windows Media Audio (WMA) is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The name can be used to refer to its audio file format or its audio codecs.
WMV
Windows Media Video (WMV) is a compressed video file format for several proprietary codecs developed by Microsoft. The original codec, known as WMV, was originally designed for Internet streaming applications, as a competitor to RealVideo.
WML (Wireless Markup Language)
Wireless Markup Language, based on XML, is a markup language intended for devices that implement the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) specification, such as mobile phones, and preceded the use of other markup languages now used with WAP, such as XHTML and even standard HTML (which are gaining in popularity as processing power in mobile devices increases).
Worm
A computer worm is a self-replicating computer program. It uses a network to send copies of itself to other nodes (computers on the network) and it may do so without any user intervention. Unlike a virus, it does not need to attach itself to an existing program.
WSDL (Web Services Description Language)
The Web Services Description Language (WSDL) is an XML-based language that provides a model for describing Web services.
WWW (World Wide Web)
The World Wide Web (commonly abbreviated as “the Web”) is a very large set of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a Web browser, one can view Web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them using hyperlinks.
WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)
WYSIWYG is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get, used in computing to describe a system in which content displayed during editing appears very similar to the final output, which might be a printed document, web page, slide presentation or even the lighting for a theatrical event.
XForms
XForms is an XML format for the specification of a data processing model for XML data and user interface(s) for the XML data, such as web forms. XForms was designed to be the next generation of HTML / XHTML forms, but is generic enough that it can also be used in a standalone manner or with presentation languages other than XHTML to describe a user interface and a set of common data manipulation tasks.
XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language)
The Extensible Hypertext Markup Language, or XHTML, is a markup language that has the same depth of expression as HTML, but also conforms to XML syntax.
XPath
XPath (XML Path Language) is a language for selecting nodes from an XML document. In addition, XPath may be used to compute values (strings, numbers, or boolean values) from the content of an XML document. XPath was defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
XQuery
XQuery is a query language (with some programming language features) that is designed to query collections of XML data. It is semantically similar to SQL.
XML (Extensible Markup Language)
XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a general-purpose specification for creating custom markup languages. It is classified as an extensible language, because it allows the user to define the mark-up elements. XML’s purpose is to aid information systems in sharing structured data, especially via the Internet, to encode documents, and to serialize data; in the last context, it compares with text-based serialization languages such as JSON, YAML and S-Expressions.
XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language)
In computing, the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL), a family of transformation languages, allows one to describe how to format or transform files encoded in the XML standard.
XSL-FO (XSL Formatting Objects)
XSL Formatting Objects, or XSL-FO, is a markup language for XML document formatting which is most often used to generate PDFs. XSL-FO is part of XSL, a set of W3C technologies designed for the transformation and formatting of XML data. The other parts of XSL are XSLT and XPath. As of December 12, 2006, the current version of XSL-FO is v1.1.
XSLT (XSL Transformations)
Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) is an XML-based language used for the transformation of XML documents into other XML or “human-readable” documents. The original document is not changed; rather, a new document is created based on the content of an existing one. The new document may be serialized (output) by the processor in standard XML syntax or in another format, such as HTML or plain text.
ZIP
The ZIP file format is a data compression and archive format. A ZIP file contains one or more files that have been compressed to reduce file size, or stored as-is. The process of compressing the document(s) into a zip file is also known as deep-packing.