GuideML Acronyms and Jargon

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You will notice that many of the sections are TO BE WRITTEN
or NOT FINISHED and the way things are going, I'm not going to get it all done in time for the deadline


If you want to write and/or edit a section, please start a conversation with an appropriate subject name, e.g. "The Section on Fonts"




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six7s





<forTestingPurposesOnly>


Alabaster

  |  


Brunel

  |  


Classic Goo

  |  


Plain


</forTestingPurposesOnly>




<toBeDeleted>


How to


  |  




C743


  |  


C801


  |  


Thread


  |  


Clinic


  |  


Index


</toBeDeleted>







Intro goes here


TO BE WRITTEN



Links in

ITALICS

are to another section of this page



Acronyms


  • FAQ

    Frequently
    Asked
    Questions
      :


    Most good websites and communities write a page of the most commonly
    asked questions ( with the answers ) that relate to the acronyms and jargon that can so easily confuse the readers.




  • GIF

    Graphics
    Interchange
    Format
      :


    One of the most popular graphics (picture) formats on the Internet


    Due to copyright issues, the only pictures in use on h2g2 are those
    in the

    GuideML-PictureLibrary


    Some of the Smileys on h2g2 are animated gifs




  • HTML (XML and XHTML)

    Hyper
    Text
    Mark-up
    Language



      (

    eXtensible
    Markup
    Language
      and



     

    eXtensible
    Hyper
    Text
    Markup
    Language )
      :


    These mark-up languages are similar to GuideML



    Mark-up code specifies the layout and format of any words and tells the browser where to find any pictures and where links (or hyperlinks) are pointing to.



    A hyperlink is a piece of text or an image that can be clicked on to take the reader to a conversation, a new page or just somehere else on the same page



    You can view the coding of any website by going to
    View
    |
    Source in an Internet Explorer or Opera

    BROWSER

      (WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER BROWSERS????)




  • JPEG (aka JPG)

    Joint
    Photographers
    Expert
    Group
      :


    Another popular graphics format on the Internet, similar to

    GIFs




  • URL

    Uniform
    Resource
    Locator
      :


    The address of an internet site such as   :


    http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/




Jargon


  • A pages



    All h2g2 Researchers can write entries for the Guide using what are known as A Pages simply because of the way a

    URL

    is written.


    For example   :  

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A123456


    would also be known as

    A123456




  • Alabaster



    See

    SKINS




  • Attribute



    An extra piece of information that goes inside an

    OPENING TAG

    to further define how things will look on the finished page



    For example, ALIGN = "CENTER" is an attribute that can be added to a <P> (paragraph opening tag) like so:   <P ALIGN = "CENTER"> to create a centred paragraph



    Note that American spelling is used in all GuideML tags AND attributes, even though h2g2 is a BBC site




  • Blob



    A name for the images in the

    GuideML-PictureLibrary

    that can be used in h2g2 pages




  • Bold



    A technique for making text stand out, using the
    <B> and </B>

    pair of

    TAGS



    This text is in bold



    This text isn't in bold





  • Browsers


    NOT FINISHED
    WHAT ABOUT DIGIBOXs??? AND A (VERY) BRIEF DECRIP OF EACH???



    These are the different brands of software designed let people read and navigate around the Internet


    Examples:


    • Internet Explorer

    • Mozzilla

    • Netscape

    • Opera






    See  

    Web Browsers - an Historical Overview




  • Brunel



    See

    SKINS




  • Bugs



    When mentioned in relation to computers, these aren't of the insect
    variety. Computer bugs are errors in coding that produce unexpected
    and/or weird results



    When creating or editing a GuideML page, common bugs in your code will be identified when you click on Preview or Update



  • Bulleted lists


    NOT FINISHED


    These are used to draw attention to individual points in a list using
    symbols like ù or ø instead of numbers



    FIND THE RIGHT ENTITY CODES


    A BIT ABOUT NESTING?? MAYBE NOT??




  • Comments



    Although everything you write in your code is seen by a
     

    PARSER

     
    comments are rendered completely invisible on the finished page.



    To write a comment, use

    <!--


    before the text you want to be invisible and

    -->

    afterwards



    They can be used to write short notes for yourself, which can be very helpful if you need to change something a few months later and it looks like a foreign language again




  • Classic Goo



    See

    SKINS




  • Closed tags



    See

    TAGS




  • DNA



    TO BE WRITTEN

    Named in honour of
    Douglas Noel Adams




  • Entries


    NOT FINISHED

    All registered H2G2 Researchers have their own Personal Space on a
     

    U Page


     
    and they can write articles on
     

    A Pages

     




  • Error Messages


    NOT FINISHED




  • Fonts



    TO BE WRITTEN





  • Fixed format


    NOT FINISHED



    Text written inside the <PRE> and </PRE>


    TAGS





  • Gadgets



    TO BE WRITTEN





  • Goo



    See

    SKINS




  • GuideML


    TO BE WRITTEN




  • Header



    TO BE WRITTEN





  • Hex numbers


    NOT FINISHED



    HEXadecimal numbers can
    1
    be used to specify the colours of  


    FONTS

      used in GuideML entries



    There are 16 hexadecimal values:



    decimal

    0

    1

    2

    3

    4

    5

    6

    7

    8

    9

    10

    11

    12

    13

    14

    15

    Hexadecimal

    0

    1

    2

    3

    4

    5

    6

    7

    8

    9

    A

    B

    C

    D

    E

    F


    As the font colour scheme uses six hex numbers (eg 123ABC) there are over 16 million possible combinations but there are only 216


    Web Safe


    colours to choose from and as there are already four



     


    SKINS

      in use on h2g2, the choice of font colours that are suitable for

    EDITED ENTRIES

      is limited to ?????????


    WHO'S GOING TO WRITE AN ENTRY ON HOOTOO SKIN SAFE FONT COLOURS??






  • Horizontal rule



    TO BE WRITTEN





  • Hypertext



    Also known as Hyperlinks and Links



    See

    HTML




  • Italics



    The term has two common meanings on h2g2, and they are related



    1. A technique for making text stand out,
      using the <I> and </I>

      pair of
       

      TAGS

       



      This text is in italics



      This text isn't in italics



    2. The Editors are also known as the Italics simply because of
      the way their names appear in conversations

    INTRODUCTION




  • Illegal Use



    TO BE WRITTEN





  • Markup



    TO BE WRITTEN





  • Marquee



    The < MARQUEE > tag is used to make text or images scroll - sideways and/or up and down.



    Because it only works properly in versions 3 and later of the Microsoft Internet Explorer

     

    BROWSER


    , marquee is not suitable for
     

    EDITED


     
    guide entries but can be used in GuideML
     

    PERSONAL SPACES

     



    See
     

    A study of the < MARQUEE > tag in GuideML




  • Named Entries



    Some pages on h2g2 have names (rather than just A numbers, like A123456) and there are two ways to link to them



    In conversations and plain text (i.e. not GuideML) Guide Entries, you surround the name with

    < ./ >

    and

    < /. >

    tags and in GuideML entries, you use the
     

    GuideML-LINK

     
    tags



    See
     

    Named Entries

     
    for more information





  • Nesting



    Nesting is a term used with
     

    TAGS


     
    that means having one or more types of tag wrapped up within another



    For example



    <P> The quick brown fox <B> jumps <I> over </I> the </B> lazy dog



    has a pair of italic tags nested inside a pair of bold tags, which are also nested inside a
    pair of paragraph tags and looks like this when seen in a GuideML entry



    The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog





  • Opening Tags



    See
     

    TAGS




  • Ordered Lists


    TO BE WRITTEN


    <OL> and </OL>






  • Parser


    TO BE WRITTEN




  • Pixel



    PICture ELement   :   a tiny square of screen space



    Everything seen on a screen (text, pictures, animations etc) is made up of hundreds of rows that are one pixel high and hundreds of pixels wide



    The higher the screen
     

    RESOLUTION

     
    , the more pixels there are on the screen so the higher the visual quality of the image




  • Refresh



    pressing the F5 key will update (refresh) the page so that you see the latest version of a page, handy if your My Conversation
     

    GADGET

     
    tells you there has been a new post to a conversation you are following




  • Resolution



    Screen resolution determines the number of pixels your monitor (screen) displays



    Common settings include:

    • 640 by 480

    • 800 by 600

    • 1024 by 768

    • 1280 by 1024

    • and

    • 1600 by 1200




  • Self Closing Tags



    There aren't many of them, but they are used quite often.



    They are the exception to the rule that all
     


    TAGS

     
    must be used in pairs
    .



    One common self closing tag is the line break ( <BR/> ), which makes the next piece of text appear on a new line.



    For example, writing


    The quick
    <BR/>
    brown fox jumps
    <BR/>
    over the lazy
    <BR/>
    dog




    will produce this   :



    The quick


    brown fox jumps


    over the lazy


    dog





  • Skins




    The skins in use on h2g2 all do (essentially) the same job of displaying pages but with their own colour schemes and layouts.


    To change your skin for all pages on h2g2, use the Preferences button.




    Use these links to see this page in the relevant skin



    Alabaster

    :   teal green??? links and black text on a white background with teal green???? and orange borders.

    Alabaster looks quite business-like, ideal if you want people looking over your shoulder to think you are working.



    Brunel

    :   blue links and black text on a white background with

    lime green and grey borders on U pages and

    Burgundy??Red?? and grey borders on all???? other pages

    Brunel users have the option of customising these colours by ???????????????



    Classic Goo

    (or just Goo):   the original h2g2 skin has brownish???? links and white text on a dark blue background.

    Goo is the only skin that has the option of using frames, which can slow down load times but lets you navigate between conversation threads with ease.



    Plain


    :   is currently (April 2003) only a prototype skin, rushed through to help Digibox users.

    It is similar to Brunel with blue links and black text on a white background but is purposely light on graphics to speed up download times.






  • Smileys



    TO BE WRITTEN




  • Subheader



    TO BE WRITTEN




  • Syntax



    TO BE WRITTEN




  • Table


    TO BE WRITTEN


    A way of arranging text and/or images in rows and columns






  • Tags



    Tags are bits of code surrounded by
     

    <

     
    and
     

    >

     
    brackets that control how text and/or pictures entries appear



    Understanding how tags work is such an important step in learning how to make GuideML (and HTML etc) work properly that
     

    Tags ????? A986114

     
    is dedicated to them



    But, in a nutshell, apart from a few
     

    SELF-CLOSING TAGS

     
    , they must always be used pairs (one opening and one closing)



    For example   :



    In a GuideML entry, the <B> and </B> pair is used to make the text within them bold and the <I> and </I> pair is used to make the text within them italicised, so writing



    The quick
    <B>
    brown
    </B>
    fox jumps over the
    <I>
    lazy
    </I>
    dog



    will produce this:


         
    The quick

    brown

    fox jumps over the

    lazy

    dog




  • Unordered list



    TO BE WRITTEN




  • U pages



    The Personal Space of a registered h2g2 Researchers is often referred to as a U Page because of the way a
     

    URL

     
    is written.


    For example   :  

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/U123456


    would also be known as

    U123456




  • Web Safe Colours



    TO BE WRITTEN

    Web Safe Colours




  • XXXXXXXXXXX



      MORE





Symbols


  • &amp;



    To the computers that control how things look on pages written in
    GuideML, the & (ampersand) symbol is reserved for use in a special way.



    To use it in an ordinary (human) way, it must be written as &amp;




    Test &

    Note that the semi-colon at the end MUST be included





  • &nbsp;



    Non
    Breaking
    SPace:



    The computers that control how things look on a DNA page will ignore all but the first space between any letters and/or numbers.


    To get around this, &nbsp;


    (with the semi-colon at the end) can be used in GuideML and the





    The <space>

    smiley can be used in conversations









Further Reading

1
Certain words such as 'red' or 'blue' can also be used

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