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Web Words, Part Two
In the second installment in our Web Words trilogy, we'll be looking at some of the more common technical words and acronyms. All the little terms programmers and developers throw around like rice at an overzealous wedding. It's always a challenge to turn a sometimes complex definition into a simpler one, but here goes...
Bandwidth
Bandwidth actually refers to the speed of, or amount of data that can be transmitted across, an Internet connection at any given time, but has commonly been used to describe the total amount of data that your ISP allows you to transmit over a longer period (such as a month).
Broadband
Broadband is typically an Internet connection with a higher (broader) bandwidth than, say, a dial-up connection. ADSL and 3G are examples of broadband Internet connections.
Browser (Web browser)
A web browser can be defined as application software or a program designed to enable users to access, retrieve and view documents and other resources on the Internet. Hyperlinks present in resources enable users to easily navigate their browsers to related resources. Although browsers are primarily intended to access the World Wide Web, they can also be used to access information provided by web servers in private networks or files in file systems. The major web browsers are Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, and Opera.
Cache (Cached files)
Websites are composed of text files (e.g.: HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc.), images (e.g.: jpg, gif, png, etc.) and other web-based content, all of which is transferred to your computer when viewing a web page. To improve the reloading speed of these files, the browser will attempt to store them locally, in the browser's cache, for a specified period of time. If a website needs a file that is already stored in the cache, then it does not need to be downloaded again, thereby making the load time faster and reducing Internet traffic. By clearing the browser's cache, these cached files are deleted and will be downloaded again when viewing the website.
CMS (Content Management System)
A web content management system is a software system designed to simplify the publication of web content to websites and mobile devices in particular, allowing content creators to create, submit and manage content and the uploading of files. A CMS is generally accessed via a website thereby making it possible to update website content where ever an Internet connection is available.
Client-side / Server-side
The terms client- and server-side are used in web programming and refers to where the code is being processed. Server-side code, such as PHP, is executed on the server and is used to access databases and pre-process HTML (or other) code before being sent to the browser (client). Client-side code, such as Javascript (jQuery and MooTools being common frameworks in use), is executed by the browser and is used to add animations or effects to the website.
Cookies
Cookies are small pieces of text data that websites use to store state information in the user's browser. State information could be used for shopping carts, sessions where the user would have logged in or information about previously viewed content. By clearing cookies, these files are deleted.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
CSS is a language used to describe the presentation (the look and formatting) of a document written in a markup language, eg. HTML. Its most common application is to style web pages written in HTML and XHTML.
CSS is designed primarily to enable the separation of document content (written in HTML or a similar markup language) from document presentation, including elements such as the layout, colors, and fonts. This separation can improve content accessibility, provide more flexibility and control in the specification of presentation characteristics, enable multiple pages to share formatting, and reduce complexity and repetition in the structural content (such as by allowing for tableless web design). CSS can also allow the same markup page to be presented in different styles for different rendering methods and devices, such as desktop, mobile, print, voice (when read out by a speech-based browser or screen reader) and Braille-based tactile devices. While the author of a document typically links that document to a CSS style sheet, readers can use a different style sheet, perhaps one on their own computer, to override the one the author has specified.
DOM (Document Object Model)
The DOM is the way the HTML elements, and attributes, of a web page are represented as objects by the web browser. A programming language, typically JavaScript , can then access these objects through the DOM API (Application Programming Interface). A web page's DOM can be viewed as a tree of elements, with the html element at the root of the tree.
Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. Firefox has had a steady climb in usage since the early 2000s and has for a while been the second most widely used browser worldwide.
Front-end / Back-end
These are two very broad terms that could refer to a website (front-end) with an admin tool (back-end) for editing the content of the website. The terms could also be used to describe client-side (front-end) and server-side (back-end) programming. The terms are not official and the their usage depends on the context.
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google that uses the WebKit layout engine. It is the youngest of the browsers but has enjoyed much success being the third widely used browser in 2011.The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or "chrome", of web browsers.
HTML (Hyper Text Mark-up Language, XHTML)
The language of the web. The stuff under the hood of a website. The standard convention and form of writing a document that is viewed by a web browser. The language is used to define different types of data, information and content whereby it can be manipulated visually by means of CSS. It is also used to reference and link to other, external, files found on the Internet via the URL of the file. XHTML is an implementation of HTML whereby it is standardised to work with other systems and focuses on well-formed writing of code and provides the means to extend it for future expansion.
IE (Internet Explorer)
Windows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and has been the most popular browser in the early 2000s but its popularity has been declining in recent times due to renewed competition from other browsers makers. One of the more notorious Internet Explorers is IE6, which has caused many a headache for web developers due to its lack of following web standards. Fortunately the use of IE6 has decreased significantly, so much so that any serious consideration for it is no longer necessary.
Opera
Opera is a web browser and Internet suite developed by Opera Software. Opera is a full featured browser with many of today's common browser features first appearing in Opera. It's most popular version, however, is its mobile version which has been in use since the mid 2000s and still remains a popular choice for mobile users.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication)
RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works, such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video, in a standardized format. You will see the RSS Feed logo on most blogs in the form of a little orange square with what looks to be radio waves emitting from it. By pasting the feed link in your RSS Reader (a website or software application) means that articles or updates will be sent to your directly, without having to navigate to the website each time to read it.
Safari
Safari is a web browser developed by Apple Inc. and is used mainly on Apple products. As of 2011, Safari is the fourth most widely used browser in the US, following Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome.
Sandbox
Sandboxes are cordoned off divisions within bigger areas, where sand is deposited for children to play in and not get the sand messed anywhere else. Within the computer realm sandboxes are used in a similar way when executable code has come from an external source that is not entirely trusted or is made with the specific intention of being experimented with and to not cause the system to break or crash. The "traditional" software meaning is thus a limited isolated environment where applications can be run without risk to the rest of the computer or network.
UA (User Agent)
An agent who is also a user, a User Agent. In more technical terms a User Agent is the identifying name of the browsing device's connecting software, be this a web browser, search engine or mobile phone. A web browser (or client) is often referred to as a user agent (UA). Other user agents can include the indexing software used by search providers, known as web crawlers, or variations of the web browser such as voice browsers, which present an interactive voice user interface.
URL (Universal Resource Locator)
The location of a document, image or file on the internet. This generally takes the following form, http://domain.com/filename.extention
Widget (Alien)
A small purple alien who has shape-shifting abilities. Seems harmless at first but can be quite dangerous when provoked by constant clicking. Stay clear when encountering this creature in the wild web and report the encounter to your local web authorities as soon as possible.
Widget (Web widget)
A widget is a stand-alone application that can be embedded into third party sites by any user on a page where they have rights of authorship (e.g. a webpage, blog, or profile on a social media website). Widgets allow users to turn personal content into dynamic web apps that can be shared on websites where the widget's embedding code can be installed.
Wiki
User contributed informational website with lists of interlinked web pages using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor.
Author: Sean Tarr
Our lead front-end programmer and financial director, Sean wishes for a perfect world where he has "more bandwidth". He completed diplomas in Electronics and Computer Programming before becoming a founding member of Shapeshift, where he happily never wears a suit and tie to work. You can find Sean on Twitter at @shapeshiftstarr, where he'll be happy to talk about the latest advances in HTML coding or the relative merits of Asian cuisine.
