The web, like many technical disciplines, is rife with with insider terminology and shorthand language. I will likely speak and write using many of these acronyms, and with the goal of building our shared vocabulary, will keep a running list here:

• API (Application Programming Interface)

  An interface between pieces of software. In our context, it is usually a service that a web page sends data to/from, like an email signup or weather info.

• ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)

  The basic character encoding for text. We’ll see this in reference to ASCII art, or used as a synonym for text. Pronounced as a-skee or ac-ee.

• CDN (Content Delivery Network)

  A distributed server system, which host and serve data close to the user make the request. We’ll see them commonly hosting external CSS, JS, and font files. **

• CLI (Command-Line Interface)

  Before there were GUIs, interfaces were text-based—meaning you typed all your commands into programs than were themselves represented in text. Software developers still use these, in the Terminal, for power, precision, and speed. **

• CMS (Content Management System)

  A piece of software, usually running on a server, that helps create, edit, and publish (in our context) web pages; ex: WordPress, Wix, Webflow, Cargo. **

• CSS (Cascading Style Sheet)

  The format/language for styling web pages, which targets/selects HTML elements and describes how they should be rendered. (The skin of the web.) **

• DOM (Document Object Mode)

  The rendered structure of a web page, in memory, structured as a hierarchical tree with nodes. (Contrast/nuance with HTML, as a file before serving/rendering.) I often use this as shorthand for “what are we looking at” in a browser. Always pronounced as dom, not the letters. **

• GUI (Graphical User Interface)

  To make computers easier to use, software developers abstracted away text-based complexity with visual metaphors like icons, the mouse, and eventually touch. This is nearly all technology you use, and now what you design. (American Artist notwithstanding, nobody sane pronounces this gooey. I say the letters.) **

• HTML (HyperText Markup Language)

  The basic format/language of a web page itself, containing the content and structure of the page as a series of tags/elements. (The skeleton of the web.) **

• IDE (Integrated Developer Environment)

  An application that combines a text editor with other dev tools, like syntax-highlighting and a file browser, in one interface; ex: VSCode, Atom, *Nova, Xcode.*

• JS (JavaScript)

  The format/language for adding interactivity to a web page, which can manipulate the DOM based on interaction and events. (The muscles of the web.) Keep in mind that Java is a different language, with different uses!

• JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)

  Another text format, which resembles JavaScript but is for storing/passing data objects/arrays (think lists). It is often what you send to/get from an API. It is even more persnickety than CSS about punctuation! And also, constantly confusing when your work with people named Jason. Said as j-son.

• SVG (Scaleable Vector Graphics)

  A format for lightweight, resolution-independent graphics on the web. (Think an Illustrator .ai / .eps, for the web.) These are HTML-like text-based documents, with hierarchical nodes representing shapes and paths.

  WYSIWYG