In hacker parlance, this word has strong connotations of
	"annoying", or "difficult", or both.  Hackers relish a
	challenge, and enjoy wringing all the irony possible out of
	the ancient Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times".

	[{Jargon File}]

1. A program which provides some service to other ({client})
	programs.  The connection between client and server is
	normally by means of {message passing}, often over a
	{network}, and uses some {protocol} to encode the client's
	requests and the server's responses.  The server may run
	continuously (as a {daemon}), waiting for requests to arrive
	or it may be invoked by some higher level daemon which
	controls a number of specific servers ({inetd} on {Unix}).

	There are many servers associated with the {Internet}, such as
	those for {HTTP}, {Network File System}, {Network Information
	Service} (NIS), {Domain Name System} (DNS), {FTP}, {news},
	{finger}, {Network Time Protocol}.  On Unix, a long list can
	be found in /etc/services or in the {NIS} database "services".
	See {client-server}.

	2. A computer which provides some service for other computers
	connected to it via a network.  The most common example is a
	{file server} which has a local disk and services requests
	from remote clients to read and write files on that disk,
	often using {Sun}'s {Network File System} (NFS) {protocol} or
	{Novell Netware} on {PCs}.  Another common example is a {web
	server}.

	[{Jargon File}]

	(2003-12-29)

1. {application program}.

	2. {function application}.

1. <mathematics> In the theory of functions, the set of
	argument values for which a {function} is defined.

	See {domain theory}.

	2. <networking> A group of computers whose {hostnames} share a
	common suffix, the "domain name".  The last component of this
	is the {top-level domain}.

	See {administrative domain}, {Domain Name System}, {fully
	qualified domain name}.

	3. {Distributed Operating Multi Access Interactive Network}.

	4. <programming> A specific phase of the {software life cycle}
	in which a developer works.  Domains define developers' and
	users' areas of responsibility and the scope of possible
	relationships between products.

	5. The subject or market in which a piece of software is
	designed to work.

	(1997-12-26)

<language, text> An {SGML}, {HTML}, or {XML} {token}
	representing the beginning (start tag: "<p ...>") or end (end
	tag: "</p>") of an {element}.  In normal SGML {syntax} (and
	always in {XML}), a tag starts with a "<" and ends with an
	">".

	In {HTML} jargon, the term "tag" is often used for an
	"{element}".

	(2001-01-31)

<jargon> (MIT) A {lose}, usually in software.  Especially used
	for user-visible misbehaviour caused by a bug or {misfeature}.
	This use has become quite widespread outside {MIT}.

	[{Jargon File}]

	(1994-12-01)

1. <file system> {hard link} or {symbolic link}.

	2. <hypertext> {hyperlink}.

	(1997-10-22)