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What
is the WWW?
What
is URL?
What
are SGML and HTML?
How
can I access the Web?
What
is available through the Web?
How
can I catch a virus from the web page?
Who
uses the Web?
What
is VRML?
What
is Java?
What
is the WWW?
A:
WWW stands for "World Wide Web." The
advantage of hypertext is that in a hypertext document, if you want
more information about a particular subject mentioned, you can usually
"just click on it" to read further detail. In fact, documents
can be and often are linked to other documents by completely different
authors -- much like footnoting, but you can get the referenced document
instantly!
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What
is URL?
A: URL stands
for "Uniform Resource Locator". The first part of the URL,
before the colon, specifies the access method. The part of the URL
after the colon is interpreted specific to the access method. In general,
two slashes after the colon indicate a machine name (machine:port
is also valid).
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What
are SGML and HTML?
A: Documents
on the World Wide Web are written in a simple "markup language"
called HTML, which stands for Hypertext Markup Language. SGML is a
much broader language which is used to define particular markup languages
for particular purposes. HTML is just a specific application of SGML.
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How
can I access the Web?
A: You have
two basic options: use a browser on your own machine (the best option)
or use a browser that can be telnetted to (not nearly as good, but
possible). Web access by email is available, but very marginal.
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What
is available through the Web?
A: -anything
served through gopher
-anything served through WAIS
-anything on an FTP site
-anything on Usenet
-anything accessible through telnet
-anything in hytelnet
-anything in hyper-g
-anything in techinfo
-anything in texinfo
-anything in the form of man pages
-sundry hypertext documents
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How
can I catch a virus from the web page?
A: Your computer
can, of course, catch a virus if you download an executable program
from an untrustworthy site and then, of your own free will, double-click
on it in your file manager (or Mac desktop, or...). This is the same
risk you run when downloading programs from bulletin board systems
or via anonymous FTP. Viewing images, filling out forms and so on
is harmless. So, most likely, is downloading a program from a respectable
source with a reputation to protect.
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Who
uses the Web?
A: Good question!
The web is certainly biased toward the thirtyish, anglo-saxon, male
and technology-friendly crowd at this point, but there's more to the
story; the demographics of the web are changing rapidly as the user
base grows. The GVU
WWW User Survey attempts to answer the question in detail. You
can access the results of past surveys and contribute information
of your own.
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What
is VRML?
A: VRML, the
Virtual Reality Modeling Language, is an attempt to extend the web
into the domain of three-dimensional graphics. VRML "worlds"
can depict realistic or otherworldly places, which can contain objects
that link to other documents or VRML worlds on the web.
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What
is Java?
A: Java is a language developed by Sun Microsystems
which allows World Wide Web pages to contain code that is executed
on the browser. Because Java is based on a single "virtual machine"
that all implementations of java emulate, it is possible for Java
programs to run on any system which has a version of Java. It is also
possible for the "virtual machine" emulator to make sure
that Java programs downloaded through the web do not attempt to do
unauthorized things.
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