A	Glossary



This glossary briefly defines some terms that are used in this guide. Platform-
specific information is noted. Additional information may be found online in 
the hyperlinks and the menus.

	.au	common extension for audio files (myaudioclip.au)

	.gif	the CompuServe Graphics Interchange FormatÑcommon 
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 formatÑcommon 
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 Proto-
col (FTP); user logs on (as ÒanonymousÓ) 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 clientÑthat 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 Questions, 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 

	history list	in NCSA Mosaic, a list of recently visited documents (see ÒNav-
igate MenuÓ on pageÊ3Ð5)

	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 mail-
ing 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 highlight-
ing (color, underlined, or both) that links to another document; 
the word or graphic represents hidden text containing the loca-
tion 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/decompres-
sion standard for bitmapped images

	link	see hyperlink

	MIME	Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions, a format for including 
sound, images, animations and other types of data in an Inter-
net email message

	MPEG	Moving Pictures Experts Group, a movie format

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

	NCSA Mosaic	a World Wide Web client developed by NCSAÕs Software Devel-
opment Group; designed for information discovery and 
retrieval using the global Internet

	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 applica-
tions 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>) 
and interpreted by a browser

	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