Web Development Definitions

PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor)

PHP (PHP Hypertext Preprocessor) is a scripting language used to create dynamic Web pages. With syntax from C, Java and Perl, PHP code is embedded within HTML pages for server side execution. It is commonly used to extract data out of a database and present it on the Web page. NT/2000 and Unix Web servers support the language, and it is widely used with the mySQL database. PHP was originally known as "Personal Home Page."

ASP (Active Server Pages)

ASP (Active Server Page) is a Web server technology from Microsoft that allows for the creation of dynamic, interactive sessions with the user. An ASP is a Web page that contains HTML and embedded programming code written in VBScript or JScript. It was introduced with Version 3.0 of Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS). When IIS encounters an ASP page requested by the browser, it executes the embedded program. ASPs are Microsoft's alternative to CGI scripts and JavaServer Pages (JSPs), which allow Web pages to interact with databases and other programs. Third-party products add ASP capability to non-Microsoft Web servers.

ASP.NET / ASP+

ASP.NET, also known as ASP+, is an enhanced version of ASP for the .NET platform. It supports executable programs compiled from C#, C++ and other languages and is not backward compatible with regular ASP code. ASP.NET pages are always compiled rather than interpreted as are ASP pages.

JavaScript

JavaScript is a popular scripting language that is widely supported in Web browsers and other Web tools. It adds interactive functions to HTML pages, which are otherwise static, since HTML is a display language, not a programming language. On the client, JavaScript is maintained as source code embedded into an HTML page. On the server, it is compiled into bytecode (intermediate language).

JavaScript evolved from Netscape's LiveScript language. First released with Navigator 2.0.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the language of the web. HTML is a set of tags that are used to define the content, layout and the formatting of the web document. Web Browsers use the HTML tags to define how to display the text.

HyperText Markup Language is the document format used on the Web. Web pages are built with tags embedded in the text that are coded in HTML. The tags define the page layout, fonts and hypertext links to other documents on the Web. Each link contains the URL (address) of a Web page residing on the same server or any server worldwide, hence "World Wide" Web. The HTML also defines all the graphic elements used on the page, which are separate files on a local or remote server.

HTML is a mark-up language (the ML in HTML). A mark-up language can be thought of as a "presentation language," but it is not a programming language

HTML was originally conceived as a simple mark-up language to render research documents on the Web. No one envisioned Web pages turning into multimedia applications, but HTML pages have been reworked and jury-rigged to make them function as such. As a result, the source code behind today's Web pages is often a complex concoction of tags and scripting.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a style sheet format for HTML documents endorsed by the World Wide Web Consortium. CSS1 (Version 1.0) provides hundreds of layout settings that can be applied to all the subsequent HTML pages that are downloaded. CSS2 (Version 2.0) adds support for XML, oral presentations for the visually impaired, downloadable fonts and other enhancements.

CSS3 has been in ongoing development for several years and extends Version 2 with vertical text, elaborate borders and backgrounds, user interaction and speech, among the highlights.

XML (EXtensible Markup Language)

XML (EXtensible Markup Language) is an open standard for describing data from the W3C. It is used for defining data elements on a Web page and business-to-business documents. XML uses a similar tag structure as HTML; however, whereas HTML defines how elements are displayed, XML defines what those elements contain.

Unlike HTML, which uses a rather loose coding style and which is tolerant of coding errors, XML pages have to be "well formed," which means they must comply with the rules.

XHTML (EXtensible HTML)

XHTML (EXtensible HTML) is a mark-up language for Web pages from the W3C. XHTML combines HTML and XML into a single format (HTML 4.0 and XML 1.0). Like XML, XHTML can be extended with proprietary tags. Also like XML, XHTML must be coded more rigorously than HTML. Over the years, HTML coders have become sloppy, because Web browser software was originally written to tolerate many variations in HTML coding.

Web Page

Web Page refers to a document (normally an HTML file) designed to be distributed over the World Wide Web or Internet.

Web Site

Web Sites are a collection of related web pages or files belonging to a company or an individual.

Web Server

Web Servers are computers that deliver services or information to other computers. More specifically a web server is a server that delivers web content to Web Browsers.

Web Browser (Internet Browser)

Web Browsers (or just Browsers) are software programs used to display web pages. E.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome.

Webmaster

Webmasters also referred to as Web Architects, Web Developers, Web Administrators are people in charge of administrating and maintaining a website. A webmasters duty may include the designing, development, and content write up for a web site, ensuring the web server, hardware or software are operating accurately, creating and revising web pages, replying to user/visitor comments, and the examining of web site traffic.

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