Computer/Web/Internet/forum language

[dalehileman]

As an erstwhile writer I suffer this compulsion to know what everything is called. There are probably many applicable dictionaries, this being one

NetLingo The Internet Dictionary

However it doesn't always answer my questions, for instance


1. “Link” is apparently short for “hyperlink,” which is almost anything you click on to access almost anything else. So how do you distinguish one in the form of an icon from one alphanumeric, usually underlined, eg

http://www.gardenbuddies.com/forums/edibles/10150-when-plant-snow-peas.html#post111023


2. A URL is apparently an address for a website. So are the two terms synonyms? or is a URL some special kind of address or vice versa

For instance is a URL simply an address that's easily converted to a hyperlink

A hyperlink in alphanumeric form incidentally is usu identified by being offered in light blue or being underlined. Suppose however I find such a link in the form of an everyday word but I'd like to get rid of the underline so as to use it as ordinary text. In Mac Mail one clicks on (accesses?) “remove link” but the underline remains so how does my correspondent know it's not a hyperlink? unless I laboriously highlight-command-U each time or even retype it


3. When I slide the cursor off the window I get a strip of icons that constitute hyperlinks to favorite websites (eg, Safari, Mail) on a black background. What is this strip called


4. Here is a link to HowStuffWorks

http://ebm.cheetahmail.com/c/tag/hBPaN9rB7uFbtB8hZafNsjAeoos/doc.html?email=

Once having accessed it what do you call such a page as it's displayed on your monitor? Is it called a “window”

……or is it a specific kind of window? or should we use the term, “display” or “page….” or “screen”? or even just “message”


5. Somewhat OT but I want to send a link to the sort of window (page? display? Screen?)--typically a commercial message of some sort--described in step 4 above, to a buddy. Of course I can easily Fwd the entire page or window, but suppose instead I want to send him/her only a link

In other words suppose for some reason I have accessed the page but can't find the link by which I did so. Of course I know that many such pages contain such a link, eg, the “here” in

"If you are having trouble viewing this email with images below, click here”

…….which I call a “sublink” and which clicking upon yields its address or URL up at the top of the browser window. (a) But suppose the page or message contains no such sublink under which circumstance is it even possible to find the desired URL, as in the window you access by clicking on the hyperlink in step 4 and

(b) The link “here” of course is the abbreviated form of a URL. What's it called if not simply “abbreviated URL”

(c) I have used the word “access” meaning to get by clicking on. Am I using the term correctly

(d) …and is there something better than “click on”

….one might remark, “Why Dale, instead of 'click on' why not 'access the link' ?” Thanks fellas, but I'm not accessing the link, I'm accessing the screen (window? message? reply? page? display?) one gets by clicking. Yea, a technicality but


Suppose I want to write another book, this one about the Internet Forum. I can't use just the first word that pops to mind


6. Clicking on a link yields a page or a message such as the HSW message or window etc often containing one or more of what I called “sublink” in step 5. I made up the word of course--but what do you call a link within a document, page, or window which you had accessed using a hyperlink if indeed you don't simply refer to it as “just another link”


7. The sentence containing the sublink “here” originally appeared in the HSW page (window, document), but you won't find it if you access the link I have provided in step 4. That means there must be something special or unique about the sentence or the sublink it contains that HSW doesn't want you to see. What do you call this distinction and why do you suppose HSW doesn't want you to have it


8. In reference to step 6.: (a) Is it necessary or desirable to distinguish amongst these terms: document, page, display, or window etc that I have used so interchangeably? and if so is there a term covering all, and

(b) Using tabs of course only one window (page? Message? Frame?) within a given site is visible at once, but if different sites are open those in the background or not accessed through a tab but not entirely hidden may be brought to the “top" by a single click. Are there terms to distinguish the top one from those underneath

(c) Have I used the term “open” correctly above? because when I “access" such a site, supposedly it is still “open” if hidden as I understand the term “open". In fact can I be using the term “access” correctly? for instance when I click on a link I have surely accessed a site but what term do I use to describe bringing it up from below, that is fully visible, in the forefront


9. What's the difference between the Web and the Internet and is it supposedly proper to capitalize both

For instance from Wiki

Quote:
……are adapting to Web site technology, or are reshaped into blogging and web feeds.

So why sometimes cap? and sometimes not


10. OT but why in the last week or so has Google abandoned test edit in search box so now we have to highlight then retype every misspelling

Or it it something I did? an inadvertent keystroke


11. Also totally OT but I'd like incidentally to herewith congratulate Word for a text editor tho not as smart as I like that in most respects seems unusually competent in recognizing a misspelled word and suggesting corrections thereto. I'd like to recommend it to the thousands if not tens of thousands of websites and forums totally, grossly incompetent in this respect

State of Mac's editing capabilities

So how would I go about it or is it even possible but if possible even worthwhile

If you're still with me—and if so I congratulate you—the typical Web/Internet Forum participant probably is a better typist than I so making fewer mistakes isn't so bothered as I about the typ;ical edit subroutines as you might gather from the above link

..and could be one reason that the editing cap[abilities of the typical forum is so disastrous……..as so deftly illustrated by sheer chance in the foregoing two misspellings which for some 17 years have completely baffled Mac's Committee on Text Editing

 

[KSoD]

1. Your cursor will change when you mouse over the icon or image. That will tell you right there if it is a "hyperlink" instead of just an image. If it stays a pointer, then it is just an image. If it changes to a hand, then it is a link.

2. Uniform resource locator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A URL is the page name which is what the DNS or Domain Name Servers will search for to get the IP address of the site you are truly looking for. All websites go by an IP Address and not by a name. Even though we all are given names to type into the address bar, the DNS looks them up for us and gives us what we are looking for without us having to know that Google.com is actually 74.125.226.199 and it is far simplier for people to type in Google than 74.125.226.199 everytime they want to use the search engine.

3. I have no idea. As this will be dependent on the browser you use and OS you use in order for us to tell you anything about it. Take a screen shot.

4. All things do within Windows are done within what is called a Window. It is something that you can change the size, position, minimize or maximize in order to see the information. You can even make it full screen or get it off the screen completely in order to open another program. This is just a term used by PC people since they were first thought of. Just like a PC was first called a Terminal, which is the same name given to the Command Prompt back in DOS or what is used in Linux that looks like the Command Prompt. This is just one of those terms that was carried over from back when PC's first started to become common as home used devices and it has just stuck.

5, 6, 7 and 8 you have lost me. I have no idea what your trying to get at with all of that cause you went off some how onto something I honestly cant make out.

9.. The internet is technically the World Wide Web or WWW. The terms are interchangeable.

10. Ask Google. Only they can answer.

11. This is a browser based item that cant be done by the websites. The text input field is just something that is a blank space on the website until you hit submit, there is no way for a website to control a spell checker for a blank field. Which is why this is built into all browsers now. If not, there are addons for it.

 

[dalehileman]

Thanks most kindly KS for your response

1. Your cursor will change when you mouse over the icon or image. That will tell you right there if it is a "hyperlink" instead of just an image. If it stays a pointer, then it is just an image.

Then what's the blue compass icon

My pointer remains a pointer when I mouse over it, yet when I click on it access Safari. Does that mean there's a third term for an image that acts like a hyperlink

If it changes to a hand, then it is a link.

I presume then I was correct in assuming that “link” is just short for “hyperlink”

2….far simplier for people to type in Google than 74.125.226.199

Did you mean “Google.com” and is it what you mean by “IP address"

And then is "74.125.226.199 “ a url since most site addresses I‘ve seen contain all sorts of letters, words, etc besides numbers, eg: Isn't the complex alphanumeric I typed in (starting with “http://www.tech-forums….." to get

http://www.techist.com/forums/f50/computer-web-internet-forum-language-255760/#post1969370

a URL, and is this purely alphabetic version just above to which it was changed what you refer to as “IP address"

…and aren't both forms called “hyperlink” and if so then isn't a URL a hyperlink

3….Take a screen shot.

Sorry KS but I don't know how but let me describe it: It's a vertical strip of icons on a black background, clicking on one of which gets you into a site. The blue compass mentioned above is one of these icons

4. …...Window. It is something that you can change the size, position, minimize or maximize in order to see the information.

Then I presume the ones hidden below the top are nonetheless called window”; so what do you call them, eg, ”hidden window"

Then “display” or “page….” or “screen”? or even just “message,” are they synonyms or am I getting too technical

This [window?] is just one of those terms that was carried over from back when PC's first started to become common as home used devices and it has just stuck.

Okay but then is there a better term for it

5, 6, 7 and 8 you have lost me.

Okay and it's getting late so I'll address them tomorrow if you're still around after trying to decipher my responses

9……. The terms are interchangeable.

So I'm right once in a long while, reassuring, thank you

10. Ask Google. Only they can answer.

Surely you use Google and if ever you misspell something don't you find no corrections are now offered

11. This is a browser based item that cant be done by the websites.

If Safari is my browser then why do I seem to get different results from one site to the next

there is no way for a website to control a spell checker for a blank field.

Of course there isn't, now feel more like an idiot than even before. So is there any way, for instance, to make Word my editor at any site without continually highlight-copy;switch to Word, access New Document window, paste; then highlight correction, copy, switch back to original site, highlight error, paste etc etc etc

They sure make it difficult

Which is why this is built into all browsers now. If not, there are addons for it.

So I've been told but once installed are they accessible when when composing a post for instance at any site

 

[KSoD]

Thanks most kindly KS for your response

Then what's the blue compass icon

This is again something specific to your machine. I cant answer cause I dont get a blue compass icon. Unless you mean the Safari Icon that opens the browser.

I presume then I was correct in assuming that “link” is just short for “hyperlink”

Yes.

Did you mean “Google.com” and is it what you mean by “IP address"

And then is "74.125.226.199 “ a url since most site addresses I‘ve seen contain all sorts of letters, words, etc besides numbers, eg: Isn't the complex alphanumeric I typed in (starting with “http://www.tech-forums….." to get a URL, and is this purely alphabetic version just above to which it was changed what you refer to as “IP address"

…and aren't both forms called “hyperlink” and if so then isn't a URL a hyperlink[/url]

A URL, Hyperlink, Link, IP Address are all the same name for the same thing. It is just like saying you have a car or vehicle or mode of transportation that you operate. Same name for the car you drive. You are over thinking it and over complicating it.

Sorry KS but I don't know how

Check our Tutorial Section. I personally make one on this aspect.

The blue compass mentioned above is one of these icons

That is just the Safari Icon to start the program, just like the e is the icon to start Internet Explorer and the fox around the world is the Firefox icon. They are just shortcuts to the executable to start the program of choice.

Then I presume the ones hidden below the top are nonetheless called window”; so what do you call them, eg, ”hidden window"

Then “display” or “page….” or “screen”? or even just “message,” are they synonyms or am I getting too technical

No there is the Active Window, the one you are using and the rest are just called inactive. There is no display, that is your monitor. The Page is the website you are on. Screen is what you are looking at. Message is what I am typing to you. You again are over complicating a simple thing with trying to place labels on it for no reason.

If Safari is my browser then why do I seem to get different results from one site to the next

You will have to contact Apple and ask them. They made the browser. I know when I type a response using Google Chrome, it tells me if it doesnt match the proper spelling than I should correct it.

Of course there isn't, now feel more like an idiot than even before. So is there any way, for instance, to make Word my editor at any site without continually highlight-copy;switch to Word, access New Document window, paste; then highlight correction, copy, switch back to original site, highlight error, paste etc etc etc

No you cant make word your editor. You can type up the responses and from there copy and paste them into the browser. But you cant have Word be the editor for the browser.



Last but not least, please learn proper editing on the forum. There is no reason at all to have 8 posts in response to my 1. I have created a Welcome Thread, which you got in your Welcome Personal Message that can outline how to use the various functions of the site. Such as how to edit your post. We have so many things on the site that I should never see 8 posts in a row or hear that you dont know how to do something. I have tutorials on so much made by me. You just have to look for them to learn such things.

 

[dalehileman]

A URL, Hyperlink, Link, IP Address are all the same name for the same thing.

I'm not so sure about that. I had always understood a URL to be a kind of address and can be called a link only if it's underlined and/or in color, a link to be anything at all you click on to get something else, and an IP address to be a sort of abbreviation for a URL

Originally Posted by dalehileman
The blue compass mentioned above is one of these icons



That is just the Safari Icon to start the program

Yes or course I realize that and if my q's aren't always clear this 81-year-old with incipient Alzheimer's apologizes most profusely. But my question was, to be a link it must change the pointer to a hand, then how can the Safari icon be called a link

You again are over complicating a simple thing with trying to place labels on it for no reason.

Not at all, there is a good reason, to improve my vocabulary so I can ask more intelligent questions. For instance you have explained that what I call the “top” window is properly the “active” one. Then by replying you must consider my request for the distinction to be relevant after all

Last but not least, please learn proper editing on the forum. There is no reason at all to have 8 posts in response to my 1.

My apologies if I have violated protocol. By actual count, however, there are 2,447 different ways in which an inadvertent keystroke can delete an entire posting and for it is for that reason I am advised to save often. Another reason for the habit is that some sites limit editing time, a few drastically, to 10 or 15 minutes. While I genuinely appreciate TF's policy of indefinite editing access, it's a hard habit to break

However if for some reason multiple postings offend TF Admin, I shall hereforth discontinue the practice

Thank you for posting! Your post will not be visible until a moderator has approved it for posting.

Aha! now I understand why my posts disappear then mysteriously pop up later

OK if that's your policy there must be a good reason for it but the practice will drive the newcomer around in circles especially if he has an afterthought

It's only a suggestion and not a criticism but often upon posting its author will note errors or omissions after submission that might be embarrassing and which he wishes he could have corrected earlier

Incidentally I note since the first submission of this posting the practice of withholding a post from its very author as discussed above is intermittent or arbitrary since it apparently doesn't apply to this very posting, very confusing

Not a criticism mind you, just the rumination of an old fella

I have tutorials on so much made by me. You just have to look for them to learn such things.

Again not a criticism mind you, and we really appreciate your efforts at moderation and administration but contributors to many such sites might be unwilling to read all the contrary rules from one site to another and so the less they deviate from convention the better for all

.....just an observation KS, not intended in any way as personal slight, I do mean well

5. Somewhat OT but I want to send a link…….to a buddy

. Of course I can easily Fwd the entire page or window, but suppose instead I want to send him/her only a link

I understand KS your reluctance to respond since it's such a technical issue but perhaps someone else on your staff might have a suggestion

 

[KSoD]

I'm not so sure about that. I had always understood a URL to be a kind of address and can be called a link only if it's underlined and/or in color, a link to be anything at all you click on to get something else, and an IP address to be a sort of abbreviation for a URL

They are the same exact thing. You can type in a URL into an address bar of your browser, type in a IP address or click a link which is connected to a site and guess what the result will be? You will go to the destination. So that means that no matter if it is a URL, IP or Link, it is all the same term for the same thing. They are just used in different context. I can create a Link using a URL which is exactly what you have done several times, or by using the IP address. The only difference is you click a link. But it still does the same thing. They are the same thing. They are just a way to get to a website. Nothing more, nothing less.

Yes or course I realize that and if my q's aren't always clear this 81-year-old with incipient Alzheimer's apologizes most profusely. But my question was, to be a link it must change the pointer to a hand, then how can the Safari icon be called a link

Cause this is totally browser and website dependent. Stop thinking that it is a universal constant. The WW or internet is solely based on what the person who designed the website wants it to be. Not what YOU want it to be. Their idea on how their webpage will be viewed will be different. Not a single website in the world looks the same in all browsers. So while I may get my link cursor to change to a hand, yours may not. This is the default of MY browser compared to YOUR browser. Again not a universal constant. You are making it out to be more than it is. Just cause you dont get the hand, doesnt mean it isnt a link. If you click on it and it takes you away from your current webpage, that is a link. No matter what the cursor maybe.

Not at all, there is a good reason, to improve my vocabulary so I can ask more intelligent questions. For instance you have explained that what I call the “top” window is properly the “active” one. Then by replying you must consider my request for the distinction to be relevant after all

Relevance is a matter of perspective. So while you may find it relevant, others may not. The window you are using is called the Active Window, the others are inactive. It is as simple as that.

My apologies if I have violated protocol. By actual count, however, there are 2,447 different ways in which an inadvertent keystroke can delete an entire posting and for it is for that reason I am advised to save often. Another reason for the habit is that some sites limit editing time, a few drastically, to 10 or 15 minutes. While I genuinely appreciate TF's policy of indefinite editing access, it's a hard habit to break

That is not a problem that others should have to deal with. The fact is that the forum software will SAVE your work on a periodic basis. Which is why you see it saying "Saving Post" from time to time. So you will NOT lose anything. So punishing our members and violating our rules just cause of your personal quirks is not something that will be let go. We have rules in place for everyone to follow, we do not grant passes just cause you offer up your excuse. Cause that is all that it is. Your reason why you should be allowed to break the rules while others are forced to follow it. Everyone follows the same set of rules, even us administrators. This is your final warning on the matter. Either take the time to write your posts out in other medium and then copy/paste them here or be more careful while you type so that you dont erase your work. It isnt that hard, I have done it every single time I have responded to your posts while quoting you every step of the way.[/quote]

However if for some reason multiple postings offend TF Admin, I shall hereforth discontinue the practice

It isnt that you are offending me. You are in violation of our rules that you agreed to follow and that we expect everyone to follow. There are no exceptions to the rules. They are what we have in place on this site and even I have to follow them as an Administrator, so why should someone else be allowed to break them? They shouldnt be allowed. They should have to follow the same set of rules as everyone else. It is fair practice to ask others to respect the rules they agreed to follow.

It's only a suggestion and not a criticism but often upon posting its author will note errors or omissions after submission that might be embarrassing and which he wishes he could have corrected earlier

There is an edit button.

Incidentally I note since the first submission of this posting the practice of withholding a post from its very author as discussed above is intermittent or arbitrary since it apparently doesn't apply to this very posting, very confusing

I have no idea what your even trying to say. You and myself are the only ones who have posted in this topic at all. I have merged your posts into a single response while keeping mine to a single response. So there is no with holding of anything. You have seen everything I have posted just as I have merged your posts.

Again not a criticism mind you, and we really appreciate your efforts at moderation and administration but contributors to many such sites might be unwilling to read all the contrary rules from one site to another and so the less they deviate from convention the better for all

Not our problem, you refuse to read and follow OUR rules, you wont be part of OUR site. Really simple concept. You signed up here and agreed to follow them, you should know what will get you banned for breaking them.

 

[dalehileman]

My golly KS, I was only trying to be helpful