When you opened this article, you probably weren’t expecting an actual A-Z list of web development lingos, but I haven’t had time to develop a good topic for a genuine technical article, so what you get is the software engineer’s equivalent of a nursery school rhyme. Enjoy!
A
Starting from A. A is for API, that is Application Programming Interface. An API, in its simplest terms, is a way by which two applications can communicate with each other. Applications, in the context of APIs, refer to any software that performs a well-defined task or function. APIs can be thought of as a contract, one that defines how the two applications, known as the provider and the consumer, communicate with each other using requests and responses. APIs expose a part of the website’s code to developers, who can then apply this code elsewhere. An example of this is the YouTube API, which allows you to display videos on your website.
B
B is for Backend. The backend of a website refers to the parts of software that control the operation of the application and the users can not directly access it. Simply put, it’s all the parts that you can’t see. Backend development focuses on work regarding server-side software. It can be split into three essential units of the software stack: the server, the database administration, APIs, and business logic. Backend developers focus more on building robust sites with sterling and robust architecture and a working infrastructure without reinventing the wheel.
C
C is for CSS, that is Cascading Style Sheet. CSS is one of the cornerstones of the web, alongside its brother HTML and JavaScript; the three musketeers. It is a style sheet language that describes the presentation of a document written in HTML or XML. It provides specifications to the browser on how the website should be displayed, including fonts, colors, images, etc. There are three ways CSS can be used: Inline CSS within an HTML tag, Internal CSS within a head tag, and External CSS on a separate stylesheet.
D
D stands for DNS, that is Domain Name System. It is the phonebook of the internet. It helps to translate human-readable domain names, such as google.com, to the machine-readable IP address, which can then be used to request for a website.
E
E stands for… well I couldn’t find anything on E, which is somehow ironic since E is the most used letter in the English alphabet and somehow web developers couldn’t come up with a word that starts with E. Moving on then.
F
F stands for Frontend. The front end can be regarded to be the antithesis of the back end, as it deals more with the end users, and what they can see and interacts with. Front development focuses on the creation of user-friendly, functional, and responsive web pages. Frontend developers use frontend languages, most commonly HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, to build amazing user interfaces
G
G stands for Git/GitHub. Little known fact, GIT is actually an acronym, and it means Global Information Tracker. It is an open-source, distributed version control system for tracking and managing changes across a set of files. It can be used for coordinating work among a group of programmers and also to manage multiple projects at once. GitHub is the cloud interface for Git that allows code to be accessible from anywhere in the world.
H
H stands for HTML, that is HyperText Markup Language. HTML is the building block of web pages. It provides a means of creating a structure on webpages through its structural semantics, known as tags, such as headings, paragraphs, and links, and can be used to display content like images and videos on the webpage. HTML work with scripting languages such as JavaScript, and style languages, such as CSS, to modify the behavior, look, and layout of the webpage.
I
I stands for the Internet. The internet is the monolithic network that connects computers all over the world and is used as a means of access by computers to get information from each other. Originally known as ARPAnet, it is a public facility accessible to the whole world and is used as the main source of information. Some of its use includes but is not limited to; the web, emails, and social media.
J
J is for JavaScript. It is a scripting language used to create interactive and dynamic websites. Although JavaScript is more known for its use as a web language, it has a host of applications and many non-browser environments such as web servers with node.js, AI/ML with TensorFlow, and so on.
K
K stands for… Okay?? I couldn’t find a word that begins with K. It’s not my fault, okay? I promise this is the last time (at least before T ;) ).
L
L stands for Libraries. Libraries are a collection of prewritten code, known as modules, that programmers can use to optimize tasks. It is reusable code tailored for a specific purpose. In the case of JavaScript, an example of a library is jQuery and react (yes, react is not a framework).
M
M stands for Mobile-first. It is a practice in web design that aims at prioritizing the mobile experience before considering any other device.
N
N stands for Navigation. It is the method by which visitors of a website can access different sections either within the same webpage or on another webpage.
O
O stands for Opening/Closing Tags. Angle brackets (< >) that bookend an HTML element to help build the structure of a webpage. Closing tags include a forward slash (</>). For example, if we were going to make a sentence bold, we would open with and close with .
P
P stands for PHP, which is Hypertext PreProcessor. Yes, it is somewhat confusing. No, I didn’t write it wrong. It is a recursive acronym. PHP is a general-purpose scripting language that works on the server. It can be used to develop dynamic and interactive webpages, send and receive cookies and much more. There is a lot of talk about PHP going out of use, but that’s far from true. Apart from being my first love, PHP is used in nearly 80% of all websites and major platforms including WordPress and Facebook, so it is here to stay.
Q
Q stands for jQuery. jQuery is a lightweight library for JavaScript used to simplify writing JavaScript code. Originally developed in January of 2006, jQuery was quickly accepted by developers due to its elimination of cross-browser incompatibilities and its extensibility feature, which allows for the creation of reusable plugins.
R
R stands for Responsive design. It is an approach to web design that ensures that a website is displayed correctly irrespective of the device it is being viewed on.
S
S stands for Server. It is a computer program or device that allows users to access a website. Although it generally refers to the software, sometimes it is used to refer to the physical computer the program runs on.
T
T stands for TypeScript, JavaScript’s older brother. Developed and maintained by Microsoft, typescript is a stricter superset of JavaScript that adds an optional static typing feature to the dynamically written language.
U
U stands for UI/UX, User Interface, and User Experience. Whereas UI deals with user interactions with the website, UX deals with user feelings when using the site.
V
V stands for Version control. It deals with tracking, recording, and managing changes made to code.
XYZ
X stands for Xylophone, Y stands for Yacht, and Z stands for Zebra. :)
Conclusion
Now you know the ABCs of web development. Go out there and build something wonderful.
Your favorite dev,
Bilal.