Glossary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| AJAX | Asynchronous Javascript and XML - a method of updating part of a web page to make the web application seem more dynamic. |
| ASP | Active Server Pages - a server side scripting technology developed by Microsoft. |
| B | Bytes. (See footnote below). |
| bps | Bits per second. (See footnote below). |
| CMS | Content Management System. A server side application that makes it easier to manage and create web content, often dynamically generating all web pages from a database. |
| CSS | Cascading Style Sheets - they describe the style and layout of HTML pages. See the Style sheets page for advice on using them. |
| DHTML | Dynamic HTML - a collection of technologies used to create interactive web sites. Specifically interactivity in the web browser after the page has finished downloading. |
| Flash | The Adobe Flash Player runs SWF and FLV files to create dynamic and/or animated parts of web pages. |
| FLV | Flash Video - a file format containing video that can be played by a flash player. Used by YouTube. |
| GIF | Graphics Interchange Format - an image format widely used on the web. Read more in our Images page. |
| GIMP | The GNU Image Manipulation Program - a free software graphics editor. |
| H.264 | A standard for video compression. It is also known as MPEG-4 Part 10, or AVC (for Advanced Video Coding) |
| HTML | Hypertext Markup Language - the markup language used to generate web pages. Read more in our HTML page. |
| HTTP | Hypertext Transfer Protocol - the communications protocol used for transferring web pages. |
| Java | A programming language. Some websites use compiled Java to make their pages dynamic. |
| JavaScript | A scripting language most often used for client-side web development. Read more in our Interactive Sites page. |
| JPEG | An image format widely used on the web. Read more in our Images page. |
| kB | Kilobyte - one thousand bytes. (See note below). |
| kbps | Kilobits per second - one thousand bits per second. (See note below). |
| MB | Megabyte - one million bytes. (See note below). |
| Multimedia | Objects that are a mix of text, images, audio, video, animations, and other elements. Read more in our Multimedia page. |
| Portable Document Format - a format for document exchange developed by Adobe. See our PDF page. | |
| Perl | A server-side scripting language that can be used to generate web pages. (It is not embedded in web pages). |
| PHP | A server-side scripting language that can be used to generate web pages. (It is not embedded in web pages). |
| PNG | An image format widely used on the web. Read more in our Images page. |
| Style sheets | See CSS. |
| SWF | A file format for data to be used by a Flash player. |
| URL | Uniform Resource Locator - in common usage, a web address. |
| VBScript | A server-side scripting language that can be used to generate web pages, specifically within ASP. (It is not embedded in web pages). |
| XHTML | Extensible HyperText Markup Language - a markup language that has the same depth of expression as HTML, but also conforms to XML syntax. Read more in our HTML page. |
| XML | Extensible Markup Language - a general-purpose markup language. |
| YouTube | The most widely used video sharing website. Videos are downloaded to viewers using the FLV format. |
Footnotes
Bits and Bytes
The difference between bits and bytes, and their common usage, can be confusing.
A byte is made up of 8 bits. A byte is denoted by a capital B while a bit is denoted by a lower case b.
In common usage, file size is measured in multiples of bytes, while connection speed is measured in multiples of bits per second. The most common multiples are kilo (one thousand) or mega (one million). So a file might be 10kB (10 kilobytes) or 3 megabytes (3MB). A connection speed might be 56kbps (56 kilobits per second) or 1.5Mbps (1.5 megabits per second).
So bear in mind that a 20kB file will take 8 seconds to download at 20kbps because 1 byte is equivalent to 8 bits.