Frequently Asked Questions
File Allocation Table
A
modem that sends & receives in
formation that is coded in a special fax format. The information being transmitted is converted from/to a graphic
image for a standard fax
application program. You can see this on you PC when you receive a fax document & what you receive is a picture (not text) even though the fax may have been transmitted from a word
processor document.
Records are comprised of Fields. Farms are also comprised of fields. Each Field within a record is used for a particular piece of information. Each field in a farm is used for a different crop. For Example, a company
database may contain a record for each customer. A farm may be divided up into ten different fields for example. Each of these records may contain a field containing the customers' telephone number & another containing the Customers Credit status. The farm may have one field containing wheat & another containing barley.
Data is stored in the form of a file. Files can be
program files - contain instructions that allow the PC to perform various tasks under the control of the user or data files that contain information only.
A table stored on a
hard disk that identifies the physical
location of each & every
file on the disk.
This term relates to taking a
file from one computer system & running a series of
programs to create a different file that can be used in another computer system. The
input file may well be a different file type to the output file.
In
DOS or
Windows, Computer
Files have to be named using a standard consisting of a name, a point & a file extension. For example, the file AUTOEXEC.
BAT has a file Extension of BAT. Each file extension corresponds to a file type.
Defines or categorizes
files based on the way that the
data is stored & presented. Examples include:
ASCII Text;
TIFF. The
format of a file governs which
programs can
process the file for either update & or display purposes.
A computer that stores
files which can be accessed by a number of different users and provides
network access to those files.
A standard for moving
Files from one computer to another. Predominant use on the
Internet. This master
copy of this document resides on my (Steve Jenkins) home computer. When I make a change to it I use
FTP to transfer the updated files to the computer of my
Internet Service Provider. I can also use FTP on certain computers on the Internet to transfer files to my home computer. A computer on the Internet that specifically stores files for users to FTP to their own computers is called an FTP
Site. If the FTP site does not require the user to have your own specific User ID &
password is called an Anonymous FTP Site.
A combination of specialized
hardware &
software designed to keep unauthorized users from accessing information within a networked computer system.
Software that is stored in the
ROM - half way between
hardware and software.
Flash animation is a Vector based animation made with Flash4
software by
www.macromedia.com. This is a fast loading very smooth addition to any
page.
Each
record in a flat
file contains a string of text where there is no inherent structure describing parts of each of the individual records. Each record in a flat file contains one
field only - unlike a
database file.
A magnetic disk that is used to store
data. They come in 3.5 & 5.25 inch diameter variants. Floppy disks are often used to transfer
files from one PC to another or to
backup important files.
The
hardware in a PC which reads/writes
data from/to a
floppy disk
A Flowchart is a diagram that is produced to show the steps in a particular
process. The flowchart will show what are the
inputs & outputs in each of the steps. Flowcharts are frequently used to show diagrammatically what processes certain computer
programs perform.
A set of characters in the same face. For example, Times Roman is a typeface, italic Times Roman is a font; bold Times Roman is a different font. While font selection is typically considered very important to graphic
design,
browser users can override the default font when displaying a
web page. Unfortunately, a computer can only read a font that has been inbedded in its system. Some o the most common fonts are: Times Roman, Courier, and Helvetica).
A
process that prepares either a
hard disk or a
floppy disk for initial use. Format of a disk will completely erase the contents.
Web page elements used to gather information from a user visiting a
site. Forms can have a variety of different
input methods such as text input, check boxes,
radio buttons, and drop-down lists. A "Submit" button is found at the end of a form to allow you to send the entered information to a
CGI program or translation application for processing.
This term has many different uses but by far the most frequently used is in relation to
Web pages where the Web page being viewed has a number of independent boxes or frames. A common application of this is with a
search engine where in the left hand frame you enter the information you want to be searched & the results of this search are presented back in the right hand frame
An
HTML document that determines the structure of
frames in a
Web site. A
page with frames is composed of one frameset document and another HTML document for each frame.
A term used in magazines & by
Software companies to provide users with answers to those questions that we all have to ask.
File Transmission
Protocol