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>Finally!
yes, ain't reading the FAQ a wunnerful thing?!
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I never read the FAQ page on anything because I can't understand the computer talk I usually find there.
I didn't even find this bulletin board for AWAD till over two years after I'd been receiving Anu's definitions.
As soon as I see terms like HTML, my eyes glaze over.
I know this aversion to computer codes, no matter how simple, is hard for most computer people to understand, but for us basic word processors--really typewriter-turned-computer-keyboard-punchers--terror is what we experience here.
Why, you computer people might ask? Why this terror? Well, take the teacher at one of our county schools who was learning "computer" a few years back. She became bold in learning how to dump objects off her desktop, and she dumped the entire hard drive into her trashcan. No joke. This was on an old Apple computer, but she sure as heck trashed the whole hard drive.
And that's just one example. As soon as one of us basic typists, untrained in computer magic, begins screwing around with keyboard functions, we get ourselves into trouble. We become code-shy because of the terrible things we have wrought on our computers.
However, my hat is off to AWAD. The things you all have taught me today have made a lot of other things clearer--and, yes, tsuwm, I read the entire FAQ page tonight and understood all of it. Progress is possible.
Best regards,
WW
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Dear WW: HTML has an interesting derivation. Old time print editors put marks to indicate
indentation for paragraphs and such like. The called the sybols "markup lonaguage". Or so
I was told. But we need a markup language for "hyper text". Thus HTMl -hypertest markup
language. Care for a pilcrow?[url[www.wikipedia.com/wiki/Pilcrow[/url]
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Dearest Peter,
I noticed that both you and sjm used the term "application". I would like to have a real understanding of what one is, if someone wouldn't mind. I'll need examples--is AWADtalk an app.? Is html one? What about Outlook Express? Umm, maybe I'd better also have some examples of what isn't an application...
Tia.
Love, Wendy's mom
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>I would like to have a real understanding of what one is...
better luck next time, but.
app /ap/ n. Short for `application program', as opposed to a systems program. Apps are what systems vendors are forever chasing developers to create for their environments so they can sell more boxes. Hackers tend not to think of the things they themselves run as apps; thus, in hacker parlance the term excludes compilers, program editors, games, and messaging systems, though a user would consider all those to be apps. (Broadly, an app is often a self-contained environment for performing some well-defined task such as `word processing'; hackers tend to prefer more general-purpose tools.) - the jargon dictionary
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Thanks, but I reckon I'm just hopeless. 
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I'm hopeless, too, Jackie.
Applications are programs hackers aren't interested in--you know, like computer games?
But something that isn't an applications is something a hacker is interested in?
And I use the term "function" all the time and am probably misusing it. For example, I think of being able to put bullets into a word processing documents as a "function." And I become really frustrated when I can't find the "function" that will let me either have all single spacing or all double spacing. Same goes for the "function" of trying to get the text to the middle and watch it creep out evenly from the middle--that seems to be a "function," too. But I don't know because I'm not sure whether these are really function.
Would I say, for instance, if I can't find the function to let me have the text go into the center, that the application has hidden the function?
Problem with trying to learn this language in teachers' workshops is we are loaded up with information, but then have no time to practice its use and apply it.
So, Jackie, I'm about as hopeless as you--but, hey, toss around the word application to, say, some kids in pre-school. Maybe they haven't become computer-savvy yet and won't notice whether you've misused it.
Bytes regards whatever that means,
WW
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just hopeless
Not unlike a defintion from Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary this defintion is probably very funny if you already know what an app is; useless if you don't. Have patience. Someone, somewhere will be able to give you some examples and maybe even a definition that will enlighten you.
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Computers have layers -- think of an onion..
At the base (the core) is the chip -- there are several chips, but primarily, they come down to 2 basic models
the PC chip (Intel is the biggest) and the Mac chip...
(think of cars, deisel or gasoline..the chips are that different)
the different chips require different Operating systems, (called OS) which is the next layer
DOS is an old OS, now days most PC user have Windows, but you could have Unix, Linux, or other OS's.. Mac has its own OS... and varieties there of..
(again think of a car, its not just the fuel that is different, its the whole engine)
Next layer is the Application... Netscape is an application...as is Notepad, or paint, or Word, or Excel..
(now, in car we would be talking about models -- SUV's vs. sub compacts, accessories for the car, A/C, Power steering, anti lock brakes, )
These applications can be used to create or manipulate files... Word processing files, or HTML files, or other file. these files can be considered an other layer, but files can be created at the OS Level as well, and Application are really just big files, linked together,
Next layer is something like AWAD, AWAD is a application that runs in HTML.(the analogy really doesn't hold here, but maybe a trailer? or a roof rack? an add on.. to a basic car... especailly since you need a modem to access the internet, so internet files are not on your system.
Your AWAD private messages are stored on Anu's server, not on your PC.
the pop up add that Dr Bill finds so annoying are also applications. (run by Java. Java like HTML is a set of instructions that can run on all types of operating systems.. so it doesn't matter if you have a Mac or PC, Java will work the same on both machines. )
This is all rather simplied.. but basicly correct..
Does that help?
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Thanks, Helen; yes, that helped a good bit. I was just reading Q & A, and they're talking about applications over there, now. I ran away screaming! 
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