Final Report, MIT Committee on EVAT

Glossary

Active link

Hyperlink

Broken link

A hyperlink which does not work, for example because the target file is missing, has been moved, or has no public read permission

Browser

Software program run by users on their own computers, to retrieve and display Web pages. The best known are Mosaic (available in X, Macintosh, and Windows versions), MacWeb, WinWeb, and NetScape

CD-ROM

Compact Disk - Read Only Memory, a disk in the format of an audio CD, but with data

Client

Local program that works for a user and accesses servers. In the context of the Web, most clients are interactive graphical browsers

EVAT

Education Via Advanced Technologies, the name the committee selected for itself

FTP

File Transfer Protocol, a standard, and a program based on that standard, for copying files from one computer to another. Most Web browsers incorporate file transfer using FTP without requiring the user to run a separate FTP program

GIF

Graphics Interchange Format, a compact format suitable for small images including color

Helper

Local program that is called by a Web browser to display information in a medium other than text or simple images. Typical helpers are useful for audio, video (with or without sound), high-quality images, and high-quality forms

HTML

HyperText Markup Language, a notation in which formatting instructions are interspersed in the text. This is the particular language interpreted by the Web browsers

HTTP

HyperText Transport Protocol, the Internet protocol used to transfer Web documents

Hyperlink

Reference to a page on the Web, or perhaps a particular location in a page. Clicking on the link makes the page pointed to appear on the screen

Hypermedia

Two or more media (text, graphics, audio, video, etc.) with imbedded hyperlinks

Image

Nontext graphical item displayed by browsers

Inline image

Image, typically in GIF format, placed in a line of text

Internet

Network consisting of many smaller networks interconnected, with a global reach. This is the network that supports the World Wide Web

JPEG

Joint Photographic Experts Group file format for high-quality images often used on the Web

Link

Hyperlink

MPEG

Moving Pictures Expert Group standard for video compression often used on the Web

Page

Unit of information consisting of one Web file and its contained inline images

Server

Software program run on networked minicomputers or workstations, that delivers pages to browsers on request

SIPB

Student Information Processing Board, an MIT student-run activity that administers computer resources supplied by MIT, including Web publishing space, on behalf of students and student activities

Surf

Colloquial, navigate from page to page on the Web

UNIX

Common workstation operating system

URL

Uniform Resource Locator, a notation for the location of various kinds of resources on the Internet, including Web pages

Viewer

Helper application

Web

World Wide Web

WWW

World Wide Web

WYSIWYG

What You See Is What You Get, a phrase describing editors that display the text being edited in formatted form