Appendix A, Glossary
Address
A unique identifier for a communication endpoint.
BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution)
A version of the UNIX operating system developed at the University of California at Berkeley.
Client
A process that sends requests to a server to perform a given task. For example, a client can send a request for electronic mail to the mail server.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
A TCP/IP protocol for transferring files across a network.
Host
A communication endpoint on a network. Any machine connected to a computer network can be called a host.
Interface-implementation idiom
A programming paradigm where separate objects are used to represent the interface and implementation of an abstraction. This paradigm allows the implementation object to change without changing the type of the interface object.
Internet
A network made up of several computer networks connected together.
Portal
A kind of network access point that is not specific to a particular network protocol. In this sense, the concept was invented by Rogue Wave.
Protocol
A set of rules and conventions for network communication.
Server
A process that performs a task at the request of a client.
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
A TCP/IP protocol for transferring electronic mail across a network.
Socket
An application program interface (API) to network and interprocess communication. It allows the user-level program to use communication services provided by underlying communication protocols.
TCP/IP (Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)
A collection of protocols that provide services and support for network communication.
TLI (Transport Layer Interface)
The standardized System V UNIX API to network and interprocess communication. It allows the user-level program to use communication services provided by underlying communication protocols.
UML (Unified Modeling Language)
A software system modeling language for object technology, used for the diagrams in this manual.
URI (Uniform Resource Identifier)
An address format for specifying a specific resource on the Internet, as described in RFC 2396.
URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
An address in the format used by the HTTP protocol.
XDR (eXternal Data Representation)
The data representation standard used by Sun Microsystems to encode data for transmission across a network.
XNS (Xerox Network Systems)
A collection of protocols that provide services and support for network communication.
