PawPrint.net Glossary of Terms

A set of detailed rules for communication between a client and server. This protocol is the foundation of data transmission on the www

RAM is a type of computer storage whose contents can be accessed in any order. This is in contrast to sequential memory devices such as magnetic tapes, discs and drums, in which the mechanical movement of the storage medium forces the computer to access data in a fixed order. It is usually implied that RAM can be both written to and read from, in contrast to read-only memory or ROM.

Computers use RAM to hold the program code and data during execution. In the first electronic computers, RAM wa...

A Page Description Language (PDL) developed by Adobe Systems. PostScript is primarily a language for printing documents on laser printers, but it can be adapted to produce images on other types of devices. PostScript is the standard for desktop publishing because it is supported by imagesetters, the very high-resolution printers used by service bureaus to produce camera-ready copy.

PostScript is an object-oriented language, meaning that it treats images, including fonts, as collections of ge...

ls [options] [names]

List the contents of a directory or directories. This is similar to the dos command ´dir´ frequently abbreviated in many shells to ll for ls -l which lists files with long format. If no [names] then the contents of the current directory are listed.

Options
-1, --format=single-column
Print one entry per line of output.

-a
List all files, including the normally hidden files whose names begin with a period.

-b, --escape
Display nonprinting characters in octal an...

The opening of a lens that admits light. Except in very simple cameras, the Aperture can be varied in size by an adjustable  diaphragm, which regulates the amount of light passing through the lens. The relative Aperture is measured as the focal length of the lens divided by the diameter of the Aperture; this is expressed as an f-number: f/3, f/5, and so on.

Aperature has a dramatic effect on the Depth-of-field of the photograph.

A text file stored in the top level directory of a web site which is used to tell the Robots (spiders) what parts of a web site should, and should not be indexed.