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