Glossary

ActiveX

The are Microsoft COM components. They allow functionality to be encapsulated and reused. They can be used by Internet Explorer to add extra functionality. A typical ActiveX control is the calendar control, used in many Microsoft products.

ActiveX controls can be developed for your specific business needs by specialist software developers, like Aptek.

Applets

Applets are small applications. The term has more recently been used to describe small Java programs that are downloaded from the internet and execute in your browser. Applets can be developed to meet your specific business needs by Aptek. There are many applet banks on the internet, providing both popular and amusing functionality. Refer to our links page - technical.

Apache

This is a web server. Its job is to serve web pages to browsers making requests. Apache is available for several platforms, but is most popular on the Linux operating system.

ASP

Active Server Pages. A Microsoft technology for delivering dynamic content to browsers. ASP pages are constructed dynamically, often based on a user's requests (via a form) or from data stored within a database.

C

A computer programming language, originally developed by Kernigan and Ritchie.

C++

An object oriented programming language based on C.

Client Scripting

The ability to change the appearance and behaviour of a web page using programming script. Typical applications are rollovers and form validation.

Database

A data repository, controlled by a Database Management system. For small amounts of data a simple file will suffice, however as the amount of data increases a more sophisticated product is needed. If you have large amounts of data, complex mathematical algorithms predict where data will be found as it is needed. This is supplemented by allowing data layout to be managed.

A database is a must if more than a small amount of data is to be stored or managed.

ECMAScript

The real name for JavaScript. ECMA (European Computer Manufacturers Association) control the standard for the ECMAScript (JavaScript) programming language.

Embedded

Software that is put onto a computer chip. The software is embedded into the product. Unlike PCs that contain disks, many commonplace devices, such as washing machines and video recorders, contain computer chips with programmes blown (embedded) into them.

IIS

Internet Information Server. Microsoft's proprietary web server. Its job is to serve web pages to browsers making requests.

Java

A modern programming language. It was developed by Sun Microsystems to produce reliable software for consumer products.

One of its attractions is that a programme written in Java can be run on any platform without being changed. As a result it has become very popular for complex web problems.

Aptek has experience of developing java based applications both on and off the web.

JavaScript

Now officially known as ECMAscript. It is the most popular scripting language for developing client side (browser) functionality.

All the common rollovers and form validation is done using JavaScript.

In reality VBScript is an option, but as it only runs on Microsoft browsers, we would not recommend its use for browser scripting.

Linux

A UNIX based operating system. It is a freeware product developed collaberatively by thousands of programmers world-wide. It is a high quality, highly reliable computer operating system. A significant number of the world web sites are based on Linux servers, running the Apache web server.

Motif

A graphical user interface for the UNIX operating system, based on X Windows.

Perl

A powerful scripting language. The PC world for many years has lacked a quality scripting environment. PERL was developed for the UNIX platform and combines the powerful sed, awk and shell scripting functionality into an extremely powerful scripting language. PERL is now available as freeware for many platforms including PCs.

One of the most powerful distributions is the ActiveState distribution.

Real-time

A computer program that operates in real-time and it really matters. An aircraft's fly by wire is real-time. Many programmes are called real-time, however our definition is based around the idea that it must happen in real-time and a delay would be bad news, rather than just irritating.

Server Scripting

A script that runs on a server. Typical examples are PERL, CGI, server side JavaScript, server side VBScript. A script that in part or totally generates a web page is a good example.

Visual Basic

A computer programming language and environment developed by Microsoft. It is very popular and allows one to build very sophisticated GUIs quickly and efficiently.

When used in conjunction with DLLs, ActiveX components and databases it is a very powerful environment.

Aptek personnel have been using VB since its earliest incarnations in the early 1990s.

Newer versions allow skilled personnel to build complex components for deployment within an organisation or across the internet.

VBScript

A scripting language based on the popular Visual Basic syntax. It's main advantage is that organisations having skilled Visual Basic programmers can access all the power of scripting, without retraining their existing development staff. 

Visual C++

A computer programming language and environment developed by Microsoft. It is a very popular environment for developing time critical applications.

It can be used to develop complex applications with GUIs or often time critical components.

Visual C++ components used with Visual Basic interfaces create very powerful products, benefitting from the quick build times of VB and the total engineering power and freedom of C++.

Windows

Microsoft's GUI product for PC's. MS Windows comes in a variety of versions. There are currently about three versions in common use, however older PCs run older versions of the product.

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