JayDax Technical Glossary
Everyone needs a little help now and then with those pesty acronyms and words no one has ever heard of. We at JayDax have the same problem. That's why we have taken the time to compile a 'small' amount of information to help. Terms and acronyms that appear on our web pages can be found here. As we come across new terms  and/or update our pages this glossary will be updated accordingly.
DMI Desktop Management Interface - Enables software to collect informaiton about a computer. For example, using DMI, a program can determine what software and expansion boards are installed.
DBMS database management system
DTD Document Type Defination - tells the browser the type of document to be displayed.
DVD Short for digital versatile disc or digital video disc, a new type of CD-ROM that holds a minimum of 4.7GB (gigabytes), enough for a full-length movie.
CGI Common Gateway Interface - a method of transferring information from the user's browser to a program running on the server. 
Perl Practical Extraction and Report Language - Perl is a programming language developed by Larry Wall, especially designed for processing text. 
Pixel The smallest size area which can be displayed on your screen. Between the arrows is a 1 pixel black dot.  >< (You might need a magnifying glass)
PC Personal Computer - A small, relatively inexpensive computer designed for an individual user. 
ISP Internet Service Provider - a company that                provides access to the Internet 
ASP Active Server Page - A specification for a dynamically created Web page with a .ASP extension that contain either Visual Basic or JavaScript code.
URL Uniform Resource Locator - See URI
HTML Hyper Text Mark-up Language - the authoring language used to create documents on the World Wide Web.
.html or .htm A file type indicating a web page written in HTML or XHTML. Either can be used. .htm originated when PCs could only use 3 letter extensions
DHTML Dynamic Hyper Text Mark-up Language - refers to new 
 HTML extensions that will enable a Web page to  react to user input without sending requests to the Web server.
XHTML stands for Extensible HyperText Markup Language - a combination of HTML and XML (extensible markup language).
HD Hard Disc or hard drive - an internal storage system.
E-mail Electronic mail - the transmission of messages over communications networks.
Schema the structure of a database system, described in a formal language supported by the database management system.
SOAP Simple Object Access Protocol - an XML based protocol to let software components and applications communicate using standard Internet HTTP.
SQL Structured Query Language - an ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard for accessing database systems.
WAP Wireless Application Protocol - the leading standard for imformation services on wireless devices such as digital mobile phones.
XML Extensible Mark-up Language - a new specification being developed by the W3C.
XSL Extensible Style - A specification for separating style from content when creating HTML or XML pages.
CSS Cascading Style Sheets - a feature being added to HTML that gives both Web site developers and users more control over how pages are displayed.
RDF The Resource Description Framework - for further information follow this link - RDF
CDF Channel Description Format - a specification developed by Microsoft that allows Web publishers to push content at users. 
OSD Open Software Description Format - for further information follow this link - OSD
DOM Document Object Model - the specification for how objects in a Web page (text, images, headers, links, etc.) are represented.
MIME Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions - a specification for formatting non ASCII messages so that they can be sent over the Internet.
VBScript Visual Basic Script - a scripting language developed by Microsoft and supported by Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser.
URI Uniform Resource Identifier(URL,aka, URL's) -  the generic term for all types of names and addresses that refer to objects on the World Wide Web.
IANA Internet Assigned Numbers Authority - an organization working under the auspices of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) that is responsible for assigning new Internet wide IP addresses.
SGML Standard Generalized Mark-up Language - a system for organizing and tagging elements of a document.
META (sorry, this one does not break down) meta simply put,  is data that describes other data - a common prefix that means "about".
IRQ Interrupt Request line - IRQs are hardware lines over 
which devices can send interrupt signals to the microprocessor.
DMA Direct Memory Access - a technique for transferring data from main memory to a device without passing it through the CPU. 
IP Address Internet Protocol - a number in the format a.b.c.d where a, b, c and d are numbers between 0 and 255 - An identifier for a computer or device on a TCP/IP network.
ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network - a special telephone line which carries digital signals rather than the normal analogue voice signals.
Java A high level programming language developed by Sun 
Microsystems. 
JavaScript A scripting language developed by Netscape to enable Web authors to design interactive sites.
WML Wireless Markup Langugage - the scripting language used in WML pages.
Midi Musical Instrument Digital Interface - an incredibly 
 sophisticated method for controlling synthesizers and sound effects processors. 
WWW World Wide Web - A network of Hypertext links.


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