Mac Glossary

Aliases
Aliases are small pointer files that "point" to actual files. An alias is typically only 6-10K in size, even if the original item is hundreds of Megabytes in size. Examples of good, common aliases are: The Control Panels folder alias in your Apple Menu Items folder and aliases of remote Macs that you often connect to. Aliases can be recognized in the Finder by their Italic names. This concept carries over to UNIX File Systems as "Symbolic Links"

Broadcast
A broadcast is a message that you want every system on the network to see. Broadcasts are used in some situations where you don't know who to talk to. For example, suppose you need to look up a host name and get its Internet address. Sometimes you don't know the address of the nearest name server. In that case, you might send the request as a broadcast. There are also cases where a number of systems are interested in information. It is then less expensive to send a single broadcast than to send datagrams individually to each host that is interested in the information. In order to send a broadcast, you use an address that is made by using your network address, with all ones in the part of the address where the host number goes. For example, if you are on network 128.6.4, you would use 128.6.4.255 for broadcasts. How this is actually implemented depends upon the medium. It is not possible to send broadcasts on the Arpanet, or on point to point lines. However it is possible on an Ethernet. If you use an Ethernet address with all its bits on (all ones), every machine on the Ethernet is supposed to look at that datagram.

Command Key
The Command Key is the Key with the Apple and the Clover-Leaf on it next to the space bar. It is sometimes also called the "Squashed-Bug" key, the "Apple" key, but it is most commonly referred to as the Command key.

Dialog
A Dialog is a window that requires some input from you. It may be an alert, such as a warning statement or a question (Alerts generally only have an "OK" and possibly a "Cancel" button). Other Dialog boxes are more complex. Most Dialog boxes appear when you select a menu item with trailing periods. (Such as, Print..., Open..., Save..., Preferences..., etc.)

FTP
FTP is the ARPANET standard File Transfer Protocol. FTP is used to transfer files to and from a remote network site. Various FTP clients exist. (Mac: Fetch, Anarchie, TCP/Connect II, VersaTerm.) (UNIX: ftp, pftp)

Hierarchial
Refers to the "tree" method of organization. When used in context to Menus, it refers to the ability of a menu ot have sub-menus. In terms of Macintosh menus, there are several methods for enabling sub-menus for the Apple Menu. Apple Menu options is included in System 7.5, Menu Choice and HeirMenus are ShareWare and Now Menus (a part of Now Utilities), HAM, and others are Commercial Software.

When used in context to a Filesystem, it refers to the multilevel structure where folders, documents and applications (or directories in UNIX) can be nested within other folders.

Network Lookups
In an IP network, 0 is reserved for machines that don't know their address. In certain circumstances it is possible for a machine not to know the number of the network it is on, or even its own host address. For example, 0.0.0.23 would be a machine that knew it was host number 23, but didn't know on what network.

Octet
An Octet is an eight bit byte. It is designated because while most bytes are eight bits, not all are.

ShareWare
ShareWare is software that the author has made freely available, but has asked that you pay a fee of some sort if you use the software. Typically the fee ranges from $5 to $40 and is well worth it. It is my opinion that ShareWare fees are the best way to let the author of a piece of software know that he or she is doing a good job and that you'd like to see more.

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Mac_Glossary.html - jjh@macdude.com
Last Modified - Oct-05-95