Re: WWW vs. Internet

Nigel Peck wrote to <mailto:www-style@w3.org> on 9 June 2003 in "Re: WWW vs.
Internet" (<mid:BFECLKEDIHDIPFDEBCFNIEKJEMAA.nigel@miswebdesign.com>):

> Personally I consider the Web to be only Web sites.

What is a Web site? I'm not trying to be difficult; the question is in
earnest. Can an FTP repository be a Web site? After all, I can access the
FTP repository in the manner in which I access HTTP sites.

> I was using TCP/IP as the name for the Protocol suite as a whole (as most
> people/everyone except you does?).

I thought that TCP/IP was used only to mean the Transport Control Protocol
running over the Internet Protocol. Your phrasing, "TCP/IP based", would
seem to include the two mentioned protocols and any protocols running over
TCP. I admit that I'm not familiar with the proper use of the jargon.

> Would you have preferred me to say:
> 
> The world wide ip, icmp, ggp, tcp, egp, pup, udp, hmp, xns-idp, rdp, rvd based
> network and all the tens of thousands of services being run across it?

No, I prefer a concise definition more than a correct or complete one.
Speaking of which:

>> Well, I was hoping for the emergence of what I call useful lies, but the
>> definitions so far are too misleading to qualify.
> 
> Please explain.

Useful lies are explanations or definitions that are not correct, yet which
help people to understand or to function. Correcting a useful lie requires
many details and is therefore avoided most of the time.

I considered your definition of the World Wide Web misleading because the
definition did not include HTTP clients, let alone non-HTTP services.

> And in answer to the question? Are the terms "World Wide Web" and "Internet"
> now synonymous?

The terms are not synonymous. I hope that, on www-talk, there is agreement
on this point.

-- 
Etan Wexler <mailto:ewexler@stickdog.com>

Received on Friday, 13 June 2003 21:42:05 UTC