Chapter 1: Internet and the World Wide Web

Flashcards covering WWW basics, Internet vs Web, Web generations, browsers, servers, programming languages, how the Web works, URLs, and domains.

What is the World Wide Web (WWW)?

A distributed client‑server service where a browser-based client accesses documents hosted on servers across sites, connected by hyperlinks using HTML.

What is a web page and where is it hosted?

A document hosted at a site on the Web (one or more documents per site).

How are web documents connected?

Hyperlinks (hypertext) that link documents together.

What language is used to create web pages?

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language).

What is the Internet?

The hardware and software protocols that enable communication across computer networks.

How does the WWW relate to the Internet?

The Web is a software system that resides on the Internet and uses hypertext to link documents.

What do you need to access the World Wide Web?

Access to the Internet and a web browser.

Name the major Web generations mentioned and a key idea for each.

Web 1.0: Read‑Only era before 1999; pages viewed, not user-contributed. Web 2.0: Emphasizes collaboration, social networking, blogs, wikis; mobile internet growth. Web 3.0: Intelligent Web with semantic technologies, AI, data mining, and machine learning.

Who popularized Web 2.0 and when?

Tim O’Reilly in 2004.

What characterizes Web 3.0?

An intelligent Web using semantic web technologies, natural language search, data mining, machine learning, and AI to improve understanding and user experience.

Who coined the term Web 3.0 and when?

John Markoff of the New York Times in 2006.

Name technologies commonly associated with Web 3.0.

Semantic web, microformats, natural language search, data mining, machine learning, recommendation agents, and AI.

What is a web browser?

A program that retrieves information from the Web by displaying web pages and linked items.

Name some popular web browsers.

Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer/Edge, Firefox, Opera.

As of Jan 2020, which browser had the largest share and approximately what was it?

Chrome with about 58.2%.

What is a web server?

Hardware or software that responds to requests from a web browser to deliver content.

Name two popular web servers.

Apache HTTP Server and Microsoft IIS.

What are the four major functions of a web server?

Serving web pages; running gateway programs and returning output; controlling access; monitoring and logging all access.

What are web programming languages commonly called?

Scripting languages.

Name static technologies used in web development.

HTML, XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, XML.

Where does server-side code run and what does it do?

Runs on the server; processes input, generates dynamic content, and sends it to the browser.

Name examples of server-side languages.

ASP.NET, JSP, Python, ISAPI/NSAPI programs.

What should a server-side programmer know at least?

HTML, SQL, or Linux/Unix shell scripting (at least one).

How does the web work in four basic steps?

Web pages are stored in HTML; pages are stored on the web server file system; the client retrieves pages with a browser; the server waits for requests over the Internet (e.g., IIS, Apache).

What is an IP address?

A unique network identifier for every device connected to the Internet.

What is a URL?

A unique address for a file accessible on the Internet used to specify Internet resources.

What are the three parts of a URL?

Network protocol, host name/address, and file location (path).

How are URL substrings separated?

Protocol://host/location.

What is the URL Protocol?

The protocol used to retrieve the document; HTTP is the most common (others include ftp:// and mailto://).

What is the URL Host?

The host name or address derived from DNS; can be a domain name or IP address.

What is the URL Location?

The path to the resource, including directory and file name.

Give examples of common top-level domains and their meanings.

.com: commercial; .net: network provider; .edu: educational; .org: organization; .gov: government; .mil: military; .biz: businesses; .pro: professionals.

What is XHTML in simple terms?

A reformulation of HTML using XML standards (HTML rewritten in XML).

What is XML?

A standards-based way to store and interchange information; a meta markup language that defines rules for creating markup languages.

What is HTML’s primary purpose?

Describe the structure and formatting of a document to be displayed by the browser; not a programming language.

What is the role of JavaScript on a web page?

Tells the browser how to change the page in response to events (e.g., clicks, form changes).

How does the example on page 18 illustrate server-side programming?

Code embedded in HTML is executed by the server (e.g., PHP) to generate dynamic content (like the current date) before sending HTML to the browser.

What is the difference between client-side and server-side programming?

Client-side runs in the browser and provides immediate feedback, reducing server load; server-side runs on the server and handles processing, page generation, and storage access.

What tasks does client-side programming mainly handle?

Make interactive pages, use local storage (cookies, local storage), send/receive data from the server, enable client-side apps.

What is the typical role of the client in the client-server model?

The client requests pages from the server and displays them to the user (usually a web browser).

What is the typical role of the server in the client-server model?

Serve pages and run server-side code to generate dynamic content.

What happens when a server-side page is requested and contains code?

The server executes the code, generates the output (HTML), and sends the result to the browser.