Glossary of common terms

A business that will host your web site for a monthly fee. You provide a domain name that you own, and after they've set it up for you, you can copy your files to their server and set up your site.

HyperText Markup Language - a language used to create web pages.

Java:  a programming language that can be used to write all kinds of programs, from Applets which run in the browser to Midlets that run in Palm handhelds or cell phones to desktop client programs and especially server-side programs including web server "servlets".  Moodle does not use any Java.

A scripting language that can be used to write small programs in web pages, such as popup menus. Moodle uses a little Javascript.

MySQL is the world's most popular open source database, recognized for its speed and reliability.

A Moodle Nightly is built automatically every day from the most recent code, and is available from the Moodle.org download page. It can be useful if you don't have CVS, but you want to try the latest features. It can also contain bugs, since they may not have been well-tested yet.

This is where your web site or database, or both, resides. You may choose to run your own server or have a hosting provider look after this for you.

A Uniform Resource Locator is the address that is used to reach a website. For example, http://moodle.org/

XHTML will eventually replace HTML as the language used to program web pages for display in your web browser. It's actually very similar to HTML, but has stricter rules about the formatting. As the world moves to XHTML web browsers will display pages more consistently, and the web will also be more accessible to people with disabilities.

Short for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, a protocol for sending e-mail messages between servers. Most e-mail systems that send mail over the Internet use SMTP to send messages from one server to another. In addition, SMTP is generally used to send messages from a mail client (or a program like Moodle) to a mail server.