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HTML Dictionary

This is a list of terms intended for beginners to web page creation, web hosting, and / or the Internet itself. If a term isn't covered here please email address to the right.
HHWeb
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Homebuilt
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Additive Color
In an additive color mixing, such as when mixing light, beams of light are added together to produce the full spectrum. For example, equal intensity red and green light mixed together results in yellow light. The primary colors for additive color are red, green and blue. (This is why color computer monitors are often referred to as RGB monitors.)
Alphanumeric
Characters that are letters of the alphabet or numbers. This excludes characters such as punctuation marks, currency symbols and such. Those would be examples of non-alphanumeric characters.
Diacritical Mark
Accent marks added to alphabetic characters that change how it should sound. Commonly used in non-English languages. Examples: è, é, ê, ë. See Character Chart page.
DNS
Domain Name Server. (See Domain Name Server for a more detailed definition.)
Domain Name
The alpha-numeric way of referring to computers on the Internet. This is not native to TCP/IP and requires the use of Domain Name Servers. This allows a human to use names that are easy to remember like "http://www.apple.com/" instead of an all numeric IP address. The Domain Name Server translates that into what the computer needs to find the server, 17.254.3.183.
Domain Name Server
A Domain Name Server converts alphanumeric addresses into the numeric only IP Addresses a computer needs to navigate the Internet. For example, a person types the easy, (or at least easier,) for humans to remember name such as "http://www.apple.com/" into their web browser. Their computer can't use this because the Internet is addressed strictly by IP Number. So their computer goes to it's Domain Name Server which looks up that name and returns the IP address, "17.254.3.183". Their computer then can contact that server directly and request it send the web page data. This goes on transparently to the user and makes the Internet a little more user friendly.
Hexadecimal
A system of numbering with a base of 16, or 16 digits. Since the standard numbering system only has 10 digits, digits above 9 are represented by letters. The hexadecimal number progression is: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 1A 1B 1C 1D 1E 1F 20… and so on.
HTML
HyperText Markup Language. The language of web pages.
HTML File
Text files that contain HTML code. These generally end in the extension ".html" or ".htm".
IP Address
The numerical address of any computer that is part of the Internet, such as 17.254.3.183. This is how computers identify and find each other on the Internet. It is made up of four numbers between 0 and 255 separated by periods.
Non-Alphanumeric
Any characters that are not letters of the alphabet or numbers. This includes characters such as punctuation marks, currency symbols and such.
Search Engine
A website that contains an index of other websites with a CGI or other program to search for keywords. Examples: About.Com, AltaVista & Yahoo.
Spider
The original way Search Engines got their listings was people submitting them. But when a Search Engine is trying to be all inclusive of the entire World Wide Web, they have a program that constantly follows links from site to site and automatically adds the websites to it's index. This is called a Spider or Spider program.
Subtractive Color
The more commonly understood way of describing color mixing. When a surface is a certain color, like green, what produces that result is that the surface absorbs all light that is not green and reflects the green light. Since this works by subtracting the unwanted colors of light it is called Subtractive.
TCP/IP
The type of network language used on the Internet. (Terminal Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.) Other examples would be Microsoft Networking, Novell Networks and AppleTalk.
URL
Universal Reference Location. The address of something on the Internet. Websites start with "http://", (http://www.website.com.) FTP servers start with "ftp://", (ftp://fileserver.com.) Email addresses start with "mailto:", (mailto:me@myemail.com.)

Questions? Email the address at the right.
HHWeb
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Homebuilt
.Org

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