Glossary

Show Terms: all simulation web

Cookie: A small data file that is sent from a web site to a user's browser, where it is stored and sent back to the originating web site during subsequent visits.

Extensible Markup Language (XML): A simple and flexible dialect of SGML, suitable for use on the World-Wide Web.

Hierarchical Interconnection Graph (HIG): Specifies the structure of an HCFG model

Markup: In computerised document preparation, a method of adding information to the text indicating the logical components of a document, or instructions for layout of the text on the page or other information which can be interpreted by some automatic system.

Persistent Cookie: A cookie that is saved with a user's browser settings for a fixed period of time (sometimes indefinitely.) Can be used to store a user's login information or prefered settings for a particular web site, but also to track users across multiple web sites, e.g., to create profiles for marketing purposes. Most privacy advocates are highly critical of this last use of persistent cookies. (HiMASS.com never uses cookies in this way.)

Session: In the context of the World-Wide Web, a series of subsequent interactions between a user (using a web browser) and a web server. After the initial interaction, a unique identifier is assigned to a user, so that a personalized experience can be provided during subsequent interactions within the same sessions. The identifier can be stored in a session cookie or embedded in the URL.

Session Cookie: A cookie that is automatically deleted when a user closes his or her web browser. Is used primarily to provide a personalized user experience during a single session, e.g., electronic shopping carts. Session cookies generally do not present a threat to a user's privacy.

Standardized General Markup Language: A generic markup language for representing documents. SGML is an international standard that describes the relationship between a document's content and its structure.

Uniform Resource Locator: In the context of the World-Wide Web, a web "address", containing both the name (or numeric identifier) or a web server, as well as an identifier specifying what information is requested from that server.