<messaging> (Plural "fora" or "forums") Any discussion group
	accessible through a dial-in {BBS} (e.g. {GEnie}, {CI$}), a
	{mailing list}, or a {Usenet} {newsgroup} (see {network,
	the}).  A forum functions much like a {bulletin board}; users
	submit {postings} for all to read and discussion ensues.

	Contrast real-time {chat} or point-to-point personal {e-mail}.

	[{Jargon File}]

	(1998-01-18)

<World-Wide Web> (Or "website") Any computer on the
	{Internet} running a {World-Wide Web} {server} process.  A
	particular website is usually identified by the {hostname}
	part of a {URL}.  Multiple hostnames may actually map to the
	same computer in which case they are known as "{virtual
	servers}".

	(2005-07-12)

<operating system> All activities involved in completing any
	project on a computer from start to finish.  A job may involve
	several {processes} and several {programs}.

	This term originates from a time when a user would manually
	submit a job as a deck of {punched cards} which would
	typically include {source code} interspersed with {job control
	language} instructions to guide phases of the job such as
	{compilation}, {linking}, {execution} and printing.

	(2005-03-16)

<World-Wide Web> (URL, previously "Universal") A {standard}
	way of specifying the location of an object, typically a {web
	page}, on the {Internet}.  Other types of object are described
	below.  URLs are the form of address used on the {World-Wide
	Web}.  They are used in {HTML} documents to specify the target
	of a {hyperlink} which is often another HTML document
	(possibly stored on another computer).

	Here are some example URLs:

	 http://www.w3.org/default.html
	 http://www.acme.co.uk:8080/images/map.gif
	 http://www.foldoc.org/?Uniform+Resource+Locator
	 http://www.w3.org/default.html#Introduction
	 ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/mirrors/msdos/graphics/gifkit.zip
	 ftp://spy:secret@ftp.acme.com/pub/topsecret/weapon.tgz
	 mailto:fred@doc.ic.ac.uk
	 news:alt.hypertext
	 telnet://dra.com

	The part before the first colon specifies the access scheme or
	{protocol}.  Commonly implemented schemes include: {ftp},
	{http} (World-Wide Web), {gopher} or {WAIS}.  The "file"
	scheme should only be used to refer to a file on the same
	host.  Other less commonly used schemes include {news},
	{telnet} or mailto ({e-mail}).

	The part after the colon is interpreted according to the
	access scheme.  In general, two slashes after the colon
	introduce a {hostname} (host:port is also valid, or for {FTP}
	user:passwd@host or user@host).  The {port} number is usually
	omitted and defaults to the standard port for the scheme,
	e.g. port 80 for HTTP.

	For an HTTP or FTP URL the next part is a {pathname} which is
	usually related to the pathname of a file on the server.  The
	file can contain any type of data but only certain types are
	interpreted directly by most {browsers}.  These include {HTML}
	and images in {gif} or {jpeg} format.  The file's type is
	given by a {MIME} type in the HTTP headers returned by the
	server, e.g. "text/html", "image/gif", and is usually also
	indicated by its {filename extension}.  A file whose type is
	not recognised directly by the browser may be passed to an
	external "viewer" {application}, e.g. a sound player.

	The last (optional) part of the URL may be a query string
	preceded by "?" or a "fragment identifier" preceded by "#".
	The later indicates a particular position within the specified
	document.

	Only alphanumerics, reserved characters (:/?#"<>%+) used for
	their reserved purposes and "$", "-", "_", ".", "&", "+" are
	safe and may be transmitted unencoded.  Other characters are
	encoded as a "%" followed by two {hexadecimal} digits.  Space
	may also be encoded as "+".  Standard {SGML} "&<name>;"
	character entity encodings (e.g. "&eacute;") are also accepted
	when URLs are embedded in HTML.  The terminating semicolon may
	be omitted if &<name> is followed by a non-letter character.

	{The authoritative W3C URL specification
	(http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Addressing/Addressing.html)}.

	(2000-02-17)

1. A discrepancy between a computed, observed, or measured
	value or condition and the true, specified, or theoretically
	correct value or condition.

	2. <programming> A mental mistake made by a programmer that
	may result in a program {fault}.

	3. (verb) What a program does when it stops as result of a
	programming error.

	(2000-03-28)