NTIA Report 98-350

A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

William Ingram

Evie Gray

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

William M. Daley, Secretary

Larry Irving, Assistant Secretary

for Communications and Information

August 1998
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

ii Ingram and Gray
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

Ingram and Gray iii

Contents

page

Figures ................................................................... v

Tables ................................................................... vi

1. Introduction ............................................................. 1

1.1 Federal Standards .................................................. 1

1.2 Organization of This Report .......................................... 2

1.3 Traditional Distribution .............................................. 2

1.4 WWW Distribution ................................................. 2

1.5 CD ROM Distribution ............................................... 3

2. Electronic Media ......................................................... 4

2.1 Advantages ....................................................... 4

2.2 Hypertext ........................................................ 5

2.3 Frames .......................................................... 5

2.4 WWW and CD .................................................... 5

3. Glossary Background ...................................................... 6

3.1 Previous Glossaries ................................................. 6

3.2 Federal Standard 1037C ............................................. 6

3.3 Hypertext Glossary ................................................. 9

3.4 Example of a Term in Hypertext ....................................... 9

3.5 Hypertext Language ............................................... 10

3.6 Description of HTML .............................................. 10

3.7 Selecting HTML .................................................. 13

3.8 Perl Scripts ...................................................... 13

3.9 Display Considerations ............................................. 24

4. WWW Distribution ....................................................... 32

4.1 Equipment Considerations ........................................... 32

4.2 Software Considerations ............................................ 32

5. CD ROM Distribution .................................................... 34

5.1 Software Considerations ............................................ 34

5.2 Hardware Considerations ........................................... 35

6. Conclusions ............................................................ 36
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

iv Ingram and Gray

7. References ............................................................. 37

Abbreviations & Definitions ................................................... 38

Appendix A: Vocabulary from FS-1037C ........................................ 39

Appendix B: Selected Web Addresses ........................................... 41
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

Ingram and Gray v

Figures

page

Figure 1. Configuration of the four frames used in the hypertext version of FS-1037C. ....... 5

Figure 2. The URL of the on-line version of the Glossary. ............................ 6

Figure 3. History of the development of FS-1037C, Glossary of Telecommunication Terms. . . 8

Figure 4. A sample definition from FS-1037C. ..................................... 8

Figure 5. Sample illustration from the definition D Region. ............................ 8

Figure 6. Two successive screens for the definition and illustration of D region in the hypertext

version of FS-1037C. .................................................. 11

Figure 7. A sample of an in-line image. .......................................... 19

Figure 8. Sample definition with access to an on-line illustration. ...................... 20

Figure 9. A definition showing an example of a table. ............................... 23

Figure 10. The main menu bar for the hypertext version of FS-1037C. .................. 24

Figure 11. The “Table of Contents” menu bar. .................................... 25

Figure 12. The beginning of the list of term names for the letter “D”. ................... 25

Figure 13. The Glossary image for “downlink” (vector graphics). ...................... 26

Figure 14. The Glossary image for “downlink” (550 × 600 pixel bitmapped graphics). ...... 27

Figure 15. The Glossary image for “downlink” (275 × 300 pixel bitmapped graphics). ...... 27

Figure 16. The Glossary image for “downlink” (90 × 100 pixel bitmapped graphics). ....... 27

Figure 17. A conceptual diagram of links and anchors invoked when a user activates a hypertext

definition. ........................................................... 31

Figure 18. Part of a sample definition showing the use of symbols. ..................... 31
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

vi Ingram and Gray

Figure 19. The main Glossary page (viewed with Frames). ........................... 33

Figure 20. The main page from the Glossary (viewed without Frames). ................. 33

Figure 21. The AUTORUN.INF file on the CD ROM. .............................. 35

Figure 22. The icon displayed when the CD ROM is running. ......................... 35

Tables

page

Table 1. A Listing of the Full Titles for the Federal Telecommunications Glossaries in the FS1037C Series ......................................................... 7

Table 2. The HTML equivalents for unusual characters used in the Glossary. ............. 16

Table 3. The Most Common Anchors in FS-1037C ................................. 21

Table 4. Different File-Size Requirement for Storage of Different File Formats ............ 28

Table 5. Transmission Times for Different File Resolutions ........................... 29

Table B-1. Selected Web Addresses ............................................ 41
1W. Ingram and E. Gray are with the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences, National Telecommunications and Information

Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Boulder, CO 80303-3328.

A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

W. Ingram and E. Gray1

Abstract. Federal telecommunications standards have traditionally been distributed

in hard copy, i.e., in book form, with mandated 5-year revisions requiring a new book

or new change pages for every updated edition. Distributing Federal

telecommunications standards on the World Wide Web (Web) or on CD ROM in

electronic form presents possibilities for speeding and enhancing user access to

specific subsections of the document, providing wider distribution to the intended

audience, and promoting conservation of paper resources at the same time. Federal

Standard 1037C on the Web and on CD ROM represents successful applications of

HTML. In several ways, a large telecommunications glossary was ideally suited for

presentation in hypertext format. The most significant advantage to the hypertext

format is the rapidity with which users can jump from definition to definition without

having to turn a precise (and often large) number of pages to arrive at the next desired

definition. Yet, the very great size of the Glossary introduced one of the biggest

hurdles in its hypertext development. The ITS editors of the Glossary surmounted

that hurdle by using Perl scripts to generate automatically the many thousands of

required hyperlinks in the large glossary. This paper describes those automated

techniques. In addition, the paper addresses special considerations (of equipment,

software, and image display) for presenting a user-friendly HTML product. 

In the months since the electronic version of Federal Standard 1037C first became

available, more than 450 copies of the CD ROM version have been distributed and the

Web version has been accessed more than 75,000 times. This shows that there is a

wide and ready audience for electronic access to the Glossary, and, very likely, other

Federal standards.

key words: CD-ROM; Federal telecommunications standards; glossary; HTML; hypertext;

Internet; NII

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Federal Standards

Federal telecommunications standards (FEDSTD or FS), which are developed by the

Federal Telecommunications Standards

Committee (FTSC), assist in satisfying the

Federal Government’s mission of enhancing

reliability and ensuring interoperability of the

Government’s resources. The benefits to the

users of strong, accepted standards include the

control of product quality, which promotes

trade; the interoperability of equipment and

services, which promotes communication and

productivity; and the support of

interdependent national economies, which

reduces the cost of doing business by

amplifying the benefits of economies of scale

while reducing the need for retooling and

retrofitting.[1]
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

2 Ingram and Gray

1.2 Organization of This Report

This report addresses the advantages of

electronic media for distribution of Federal

telecommunications standards. The paper

describes the details of developing Hypertext

Markup Language (HTML) code for a large

Federal telecommunications standard, and

illustrates the presentation of Federal standards

on the World Wide Web (WWW or Web)2 and

in CD-ROM format, using FS-1037C,

Glossary of Telecommunication Terms, as an

example. Section 2 examines the advantages

for distribution and use of Federal standards in

electronic form as compared to hard copy.

Those advantages are listed first for hypertext

in general, and then for Web documents, and

finally for CD ROM’s. Section 3 discusses the

background and history of the FS-1037C

series of glossaries. Section 3.5 presents

details of developing HTML code for

FS-1037C. Section 4 gives details on

equipment and software considerations for

WWW presentation of FS-1037C, in

particular, and other multimedia documents, in

general. Section 5 illustrates equipment and

software concerns for CD ROM distribution.

Section 6 provides conclusions.

1.3 Traditional Distribution

Traditionally, Federal telecommunications

standards have been distributed in hard copy,3

such as in book format, with mandated 5-year

revision cycles requiring a new book or new

change pages for the book for every updated

revision. Historically, Federal standards were

distributed by the General Services

Administration (GSA) or by NTIS (National

Technical Information Service). In today’s

computer-driven society, however, the

preparation and issuance of printed material in

hard copy may be neither sufficient nor

optimal for making the results of the standards

committee’s work available to the public. For

many people today, the most convenient, most

available, and most-often used source of

information is the WWW.

1.4 WWW Distribution

The FS-1037C, Glossary o f

Telecommunication Terms, was put on the

World Wide Web using HTML coding (ver.

3.0) to extend access to the large and growing

audience on the Internet. Accommodations

were made to provide compatibility with most

computer platforms and with a variety of

hypertext browsers. After the document had

been on the Web for only three months, the

number of accesses to the Glossary exceeded

75 per day. Web distribution of the Glossary

vastly increased the availability of the

document. Earlier editions of the Glossary

(FS-1037A and 1037B) were reportedly best

sellers, but the editors were never able to

determine the extent of the document’s

circulation or popularity. The “hit counter”

(i.e., the record of how many times the Web

page was accessed) on the Web edition has

provided a better idea of FS-1037C’s use:

after seven months on the Web, the hit counter

showed that the Standard had been accessed

more than 12,000 times. Slightly more than a

year later, the hit counter has recorded more

than 75,000 visits to the page.

2An international, virtual-network-based information service

composed of Internet host computers that provide on-line

information in a specific hypertext format.

3Printed copies of FS-1037C are available from

NCS, Mrs. J. Orndorff

701 S. Court House Rd.

Arlington, VA 22204-2198

Telephone: (703) 607-6204
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

Ingram and Gray 3

Advantages of Web distribution of the

Standard include:

U Early access to the approved

Standard. Web distribution of the Standard

allows potential users early access to the

official version of the Standard months

before it rolls off the presses in hard copy.

U Reduced cost to the user. Purchasers of

hard copies of the Standard are required to

pay for the printed copy. No fee or purchase

price is associated with using the Web

version (other than the normal access fees

paid by the user to their own Internet Service

Provider (ISP)).

U Early collection of review comments.

In the past, proposed revisions to the

Standard were collected only a few months

before the revision process was initiated.

With Web availability, reviewers may

respond immediately with comments (via email or otherwise). This review mechanism is

particularly helpful for those reviewers who

are not able to participate in the revision

process and who cannot see early drafts of

the Glossary. Also, easier access to the Web

copy (relative to the hard copies) and the

organized layout of the Web version, allows

readers to provide better, quicker, more

thorough, and more organized critique.

U Portability. Users need not carry around

a heavy paper copy of the Standard (which

contains 450 pages). Users need not

purchase multiple hard copies of the

Standard in order to have a copy handy at

multiple locations.

U Accessibility. By making Federal

standards more accessible (on the Web) and

easier to use (in hypertext), the many

benefits of having the standards are realized

sooner and more fully.

U Wide distribution. Increased

distribution and use of the Standard

emphasizes the advantages of having a

standard: interoperability, portability, and

uniformity. These advantages are particularly

strong in the case of a vocabulary standard,

where standardized definitions of

components and services help the

manufacturers, vendors, and users alike.

Without a standardized vocabulary, advances

in technology could not be unambiguously

communicated. Unless the advances are

effectively communicated, those advances

are lost, and all their benefits with them.

1.5 CD ROM Distribution

The completed FS-1037C, Glossary of

Telecommunication Terms, was put onto one

CD ROM in three versions: 

1) Portable Document Format (PDF) (with a

freeware reader included on the CD). 

2) HTML format (with a browser included on

the CD) viewable on several popular platforms

such as MacintoshTM, Windows 95®,

Windows 3.x®, and DOS®.4 The CD ROM’s

are distributed by the National

Communications System in Arlington,

Virginia. (License fees were paid to the

producer of the browser to allow inclusion of

a licensed copy of the browser on each copy of

the CD ROM.)

4Certain commercial equipment, software, services, or

materials are identified in this paper to specify adequately

the procedures. In no case does such identification imply

recommendation or endorsement by the National

Telecommunications and Information Administration, nor

does it imply that the software, material or equipment

identified is necessarily the best available for the purpose.
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

4 Ingram and Gray

The HTML version of the Standard differed

from the hard copy version in format only; the

technical content remained unchanged. Also,

the HTML version contained new sections

called “help,” “welcome,” “hints,” “files,” and

“credits,” that were not part of the hard copy

and that provided additional, unofficial

information to the viewer of the HTML

version. Additionally, the figures in the HTML

version are presented in color. (Details of the

development of the HTML version for the CD

ROM and for the Web are discussed in

Section 4 below.)

3) WordPerfect® 6.1 files (as archival files,

readable by any machine having an executable

version of WordPerfect® 6.1).

2. ELECTRONIC MEDIA

This section describes hypertext characteristics

and the advantages of the hypertext medium

for presentation of FS-1037C.

Effective development of electronic versions

of Federal standards requires consideration of

the exact medium for presentation, which

depends, in turn, on the nature of the

information contained in the standard. The two

types of electronic distribution addressed in

this paper are via CD ROM and the WWW. 

CD ROM’s are an obvious choice for storing

very large documents, because the CD ROM

can hold 660 Mb of information. If data is

compressed (using existing compression

algorithms) before putting it on the CD ROM,

approximately twice as much data (more than

a gigabyte) can be stored in the 660 Mb on the

CD ROM. Further, a CD ROM can

accommodate multimedia; i.e., text, hypertext,

pictures (drawings, digitized photos, and video

clips) as well as sound recordings (audio

clips). All varieties of these media can be

stored and accessed interactively on one CD

ROM.

The World Wide Web also provides access to

all of the above formats for information

retrieval. Web pages, like CD ROM’s, can

contain still pictures, video and audio clips,

and hypertext. 

2.1 Advantages

As mentioned in Section 1.3, Federal standards

have traditionally been printed and circulated

in hard copy, like a book, with mandated 5-

year revisions requiring a new book (or new

change pages) for the updated edition.

Distributing Federal telecommunications

standards on electronic media presents

possibilities for providing direct access to the

subsections of the standards themselves and

wider distribution to the intended audience, as

well as for conserving paper. On-line versions

of standards can be accessed even from a

remote field site, using a computer and a

modem. The advantages of electronic copies

of Federal standards include: speed of access,

accurate—and very rapid—text searches, ease

of logistics, and—in the case of hypertext

versions—external links to related documents

and internal links within the subject standard

itself. 

If a paper copy of the Glossary is needed, the

user can order one from the Government or

use the electronic files, available on-line, to

print out a copy on his or her own printer.

The format of this large glossary is particularly

suited to presentation in the frames of a
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

Ingram and Gray 5

Figure 1. Configuration of the four frames

used in the hypertext version of FS-1037C.

computer browser. The individual definitions

can be displayed in their standard dictionary

format [2] as if they were individual index

cards.

Electronic, dynamic versions of documents

have additional, obvious advantages for

continuous updating of information. However,

the focus of this paper is on glossaries that are

only updated every five years. Electronic

updating of the documents, as a part of an ongoing editing effort, is outside the scope of this

paper.

2.2 Hypertext

The advantages of hypertext for nonsequential navigation of a glossary are many.

One especially powerful advantage is the ease

of use of a hypertext index. The HTML

version of the Glossary has a hypertext index

of the major subject categories of terms

defined.

The index, contained in Appendix B of

FS-1037C, contains a list of 30 different topics

within the field of telecommunications for

which telecommunications terms are defined.

Under each topic is a list of term names that

are defined within the Glossary and that are

related to that topic. Users of the Glossary can

use this Appendix to examine whole families of

related terms. Viewers of the HTML version

not only can view a family of related term

names in any category of the index, but can

select any of those term names individually to

read the appropriate definition immediately

with a click of the mouse button. Meanwhile,

the list of categories in the index remains on

the screen in a separate window.

2.3 Frames

Within a hypertext presentation, the display

area can be broken up into smaller display

areas. Each of these smaller display areas can

be addressed independently, and is called a

“frame.” A frame can be used to keep certain

display items visible to the viewer while

changing the information displayed in other

frames. For the hypertext version of

FS-1037C, four separate frames are used to

display information. The four frames are

shown in Figure 1. More information on

frames is presented in Section 3.9.1.

2.4 WWW and CD

Having the Glossary available on the Web

greatly increases its availability and potential

for use. Workers at a field site no longer need

be concerned that they may not have the latest

paper edition of the Glossary on hand; they

need only look at the Glossary on the Web to

be assured that they have the latest edition.

Posting the hypertext version of the Glossary

on the Web also has a significant advantage for

classroom use, where it is not necessary to

purchase dozens of copies of the Glossary,

one for each member of the class. Copies of
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

6 Ingram and Gray

http://glossary.its.bldrdoc.gov/fs-1037

Figure 2. The URL of the on-line version of

the Glossary.

the Glossary can be viewed, via the Internet,

on every computer in the classroom,

simultaneously.

The CD ROM version requires a CD ROM

reader, but allows the same access to the

hypertext version as is available on the Web.

This version provides the same advantages of

nonlinear navigation, viz., rapid access to

definitions and quick access to families of

definitions. Availability of the CD ROM is

more limited than on the Web, since copies of

the CD must be obtained from the National

Communications System (NCS), whereas

anyone with a computer connection to the

Internet can browse the Glossary at the URL

shown in Figure 2.

The CD ROM and the Web versions of the

Glossary contain additional PDF files of the

entire Glossary. Glossary pages presented in

PDF format resemble a photograph of the

hard-copy page of the Glossary. Each page of

the PDF file begins and ends at the same point

in the text where the hard copy begins and

ends. The figures in the PDF file are shown in

shades of black and white, without the color

shown in the hypertext files. However, the

PDF reader included on the CD ROM only

allows string searches to be made within

individual sections of the Standard. Full

hypertext linking is not available in PDF.

3. GLOSSARY BACKGROUND

This section outlines the history of the

development of FS-1037C, its intended

audience, its content, and how the format of

that content is changed by the HTML

presentation.

3.1 Previous Glossaries

For more than two decades—and with the

sponsorship of the National Communications

System and the U.S. Department of

Defense—the Institute for Telecommunication

Sciences (ITS), of the U.S. Department of

Commerce and National Telecommunications

and Information Administration (NTIA), has

had a significant role in the development of the

state-of-the-art telecommunications glossaries

listed in Table 1. The chronology of these

glossaries is shown in Figure 3.

3.2 Federal Standard 1037C

The FS-1037C Glossary represents the review

by and coordination with a dozen experts in as

many agencies, over a period of 18 months.

In 1996, FED-STD-1037C, Glossary of

Telecommunication Terms, was developed as

a revision of the 1991 Glossary in the usual

hard-copy format, with the addition of 80

drawings, 50 displayed equations, a list of

acronyms and abbreviations (Appendix A of

FS-1037C), and an index of principal families

of term names (Appendix B of FS-1037C).
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

Ingram and Gray 7

Year Glossary

1976 MIL-STD-188-120,

Glossary of

Telecommunication Terms

1980 FS-1037, Glossary of

Telecommunication Terms

1979 NTIA-SP 79-14, Fiber

Optics Glossary

1979 -

1980

NBS Handbook 140, which

became EIA-440A, & IEEE

812, Optical Waveguide

Communications Glossary

1986 FS-1037A, Glossary of

Telecommunication Terms

1991 FS-1037B, Glossary of

Telecommunication Terms

1996 FS-1037C, Glossary of

Telecommunication Terms

Table 1. A Listing of the Full Titles for the

Federal Telecommunications Glossaries in

the FS-1037C Series

The Glossary was developed by the

Subcommittee to Revise FS-1037B, which is

a subcommittee of the Federal

Telecommunications Standards Committee,

chaired by the NCS. The Institute for

Telecommunication Sciences—which is the

research and engineering arm of NTIA—in

Boulder, Colorado, chaired the Subcommittee,

edited the document, developed the hypertext

version of the Glossary, put it on the Web, and

produced the CD ROM.

This latest glossary, which is the August 1996

revision of the 1991 Standard, has been

updated to include terminology and definitions

from the fields of networking, the NII

(National Information Infrastructure, or the

Information Superhighway), CD ROM’s,

video teleconferencing, browsers, and other,

new Web terms.

Figure 4 and Figure 5 show an example of a

revised definition (the definition of D region).

It is a revision and compilation of the

definition that appeared in FS-1037B.

The illustrations and definitions were

developed after open, interactive committee

review, expert staff review, and 120 days of

public review and comment, in keeping with

requirements for preserving due process in

standards development [3]. All definitions and

figures were subject to the same rigorous

scrutiny and open review process before the

Glossary was approved by GSA as a Federal

standard (according to practices in place in

1996).
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

8 Ingram and Gray

Figure 3. History of the development of FS-1037C, Glossary of Telecommunication Terms.

D region: That portion of the ionosphere

existing approximately 50 to 95 km above

the surface of the Earth. (188) Note:

Attenuation of radio waves, caused by

ionospheric free-electron density

generated by solar radiation, is

pronounced during daylight hours.

Because solar radiation is not present at

night, ionization ceases, and hence

attenuation of radio waves ceases.

Figure 4. A sample definition from FS-1037C.

Figure 5. Sample illustration from the

definition D Region.
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

Ingram and Gray 9

The Glossary includes definitions in the

disciplines of:

U Communications Security

U Data Communications

U Data Processing

U Fax

U Fiber Optics Communications

U Grounding and Bonding

U National Security/Emergency

Preparedness

U National Information Infrastructure

U Networks (including Internet, Intelligent

Nets, ISDN, Broadband ISDN, Network

Management)

U Premises Wiring

U Radar

U Radio Communications

U Spectrum Sharing

U Telegraphy

U Telephony

U TV (UHF, VHF, Cable, and HighDefinition TV)

The Glossary is designed with the following

prospective users in mind:

U Acquisitions Agents

U Government Standards Writers

U Government Standards Users

U NII Planners

U Operations and Maintenance Workers

U Research and Development Workers

U Technical Writers and Editors

U Telecommunications Designers

U Telecommunications Instructors

U Telecommunications Managers and

Planners

U Telecommunications Vendors

U Test Personnel

3.3 Hypertext Glossary

When the draft Standard was complete and

approved by GSA as an official, mandatory

standard, the Institute for Telecommunication

Sciences developed it into hypertext format,

using HTML 3.0. At the time of this

development, HTML 3.0 had not yet been

formally standardized. Many of the features

found in HTML 3.0, however, have already

been incorporated into the newest generations

of browsers, despite this lack of formal

standardization. The Institute decided to

conform with as many of the features listed in

the proposed version of HTML 3.0 as

possible. It is likely that any specifications

from HTML 3.0 that are widely enough

implemented, will become, at least, a de facto

part of HTML 3.0.

One example of an HTML 3.0 specification

that the ITS editors used, before its formal

adoption, is HTML frames. In the three years

since the editors incorporated frames into the

electronic version of FS-1037C, every new

version of each of the major Internet browsers

has supported the use of frames. It is likely

that every subsequent version will support

frames as well.

3.4 Example of a Term in Hypertext

The only difference between the hard copy and

the electronic copy of the Standard is in

format. For example, in hard copy, the

definition of D region (with its figure) wraps

between two columns (and pages), and the

figure is shown in black and white. In the PDF

version, the same format is preserved.

In the hypertext version, however, each

separate definition is displayed on a screen of

its own, rather than sharing a page with many
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

10 Ingram and Gray

other entries in typical dictionary format.

Figure 6 shows two successive hypertext

screens that display first the definition of D

region (of the ionosphere), and then the

multimedia drawing for D region. The arrows

in Figure 6 point to the successive screens

that appear with each of the two mouse clicks

in the definition of D region.

3.5 Hypertext Language

This section discusses the development of

HTML and identifies some of the coding to

convert a document into HTML format for

presentation on the Web. This section also

describes the techniques used to generate

automatically the many thousands of links

needed in the hypertext version of FS-1037C.

Special cases—such as figures and

equations–are also addressed.

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is a

programming language designed to allow an

author to create an interactive, multimedia

display for a remote viewer. Some HTML

features allow the author to present the user

sights and sounds relevant to the document, as

well as to download documents containing

related information.

3.6 Description of HTML

In the late 1980s, the Internet (which, at that

time, was still known as ARPANET—the

Advanced Research Projects Agency

Network) had evolved into a way for scientists

and other researchers quickly and easily to

share information with each other. As an

example, one scientist could place his or her

data file into a specific directory on a

particular computer. The scientist could inform

colleagues where and how to find that data

file. Those colleagues could then download the

data file and analyze it. Any conclusions,

comments, or additional data from those

colleagues could be sent back to the original

author electronically by E-mail or as a new

data file.

The popularity of this system of data exchange

prompted several universities to build menu

systems to catalog all of the documents that

their scientists were making available to other

researchers. These menu systems allowed a

user to find a specific document by selecting

choices from a series of static menus.

Early menus required the user to type in a

number or letter representing the category of

interest. New menus would sequentially be

presented to the user until the desired

document was found and downloaded.

Later menu systems were more interactive and

allowed the user to move a cursor around the

screen and to select menu items with a

computer mouse or with the cursor keys on

the keyboard.

Until this point, network site administrators

had been building their menu structures in a

tree-like hierarchy, with each menu item

leading downwards to a submenu. Each

submenu contained a number of branches to

further submenus or, at the lowest levels, to

the documents themselves. Also, all menu

items pointed exclusively to documents and

submenus within the facility (e.g., a university

or a research laboratory).
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

Ingram and Gray 11

Figure 6. Two successive screens for the definition and illustration of D region

in the hypertext version of FS-1037C.
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

12 Ingram and Gray

As the number and types of different document

categories expanded, it became evident that

many documents were appropriate to be listed

in several different categories. Rather than

save a second, identical copy of the document

onto the system’s hard drive, the administrator

would simply build separate menu items, to the

single document file, from each appropriate

menu. In addition, menu administrators began

adding menu items that referenced documents

or menus at remote facilities. These

procedures began to give the menu systems

more of a spider-web structure than a tree

hierarchy. Soon thereafter, these menuing

systems gained the nickname, “World Wide

Web.” Similarly, the individual menus became

known as “Web Pages.”

The next step in this evolution occurred when

these Web sites adorned their pages with

simple graphics such as University logos and

pictures of the authors. Unfortunately, most

users were using simple, nongraphical ASCII

terminals that could not accept or display such

images.

The administrators at some of these Web sites

solved this dilemma by writing a simple

program that a user could run, on his or her

own computer, that would correctly display

the included graphics. This graphical front end

(any interface program that is installed and run

at the user’s site is called a “front end”) was

called a “network browser” (later to be known

as a “Web browser”) and was simply given to

any user who requested it.

Web-page authors could now send special

triggers to any user running the author’s

specific browser. These special triggers caused

text to be displayed in various colors or sizes

and caused sections of the text to blink.

As more and more users began using these

network browsers, the programmers continued

to add enhancements and more sophisticated

features to the browsers. Some browsers

began to include special features that other

browsers could not understand. Document

authors and users became confused and

frustrated, since users would now be required

to use specific browsers to view specific

pages. The Web authors and users formed a

consortium5 to develop a standardized

computer language that would allow authors

easily to create and present pages of data that

could be correctly displayed on any type of

browser.

The result of the consortium’s effort was the

Hypertext Markup Language. HTML provides

a series of simple, ASCII tags that indicate

changes in text format, font size, and text

positioning. For example, the paired code,

“<b></b>” is often written into a Web

page and transmitted to a browser. This pair of

codes indicates to the browser that any text

between the codes should be displayed as bold

text. For example, the following line of HTML

code,

The fire was so hot that

it <b>melted</b> the

framework

would be displayed to the viewer as,

The fire was so hot that

it melted the framework.

5

Information on the National Center for Supercomputing

Applications (NCSA) can be found at their Web page, 

http://www.ncsa.edu/
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

Ingram and Gray 13

Slightly more complicated HTML codes are

used to display in-line graphics, to display data

in tabular form, and to create links to other

pages of information. For example, the HTML

code,

<img src=”cover.gif”>

This is the cover of the

report.

would display a graphic file (called

“COVER.GIF”), followed by the line of text,

“This is the cover of the report.”

More complete tutorials for creating and using

HTML documents can be found at several

different sites on the World Wide Web6 (and,

they are all presented to the viewer using

actual HTML encoding).

3.7 Selecting HTML

To distribute the “C” version of FS-1037

electronically, the ITS editing team identified

two types of electronic distribution. The first

type was on a physical medium, such as floppy

disks or CD ROM. Floppy disks were quickly

dismissed as an option when the size of the

word-processing files for FS-1037C grew to

more than 20 Mb of storage space. However,

distributing the files on a CD ROM remained

a viable option, since a CD can hold as many

as 660 Mb of data. Several different versions

of the Glossary could be included on one

single CD (e.g., hypertext, word-processing

documents, and Postscript® files).

The other method of electronic distribution

selected was on-line distribution over the

Internet. The Internet, while having the

potential to store an unlimited amount of data,

is limited in that data can only be transferred

between sites at a finite rate. Currently, this

rate is not sufficient to transfer the entire

Glossary—more than 20 Mb of files—in the

time necessary to qualify the Glossary as a

single, on-demand (i.e., instantly accessible)

resource.

However, when the Glossary files are

separated into small files and catalogued into

a database, the small bits of data that any one

user would want to read at any one time (i.e.,

a single definition), can quickly be found and

transmitted. With this rapid transfer time, the

Glossary does qualify as an on-demand

document.

The HTML system of Web-like menus was

judged, by the editors, to be adequate for

putting FS-1037C on the Web in hypertext.

Additionally, the growing popularity of the

World Wide Web assures that current (and

future) browsers, as well as HTML itself, will

be supported and upgraded for many years to

come.

3.8 Perl Scripts

The editors examined several means of

converting the large text files of FS-1037C to

HTML files for presentation as Web pages.

Some level of automation was required to

generate the huge number of links required to

make the document fully interconnected within

itself. The Perl programming language was

selected as the tool for this automation task.

6Three such on-line resources are,

“http://WWW.Stars.com/” 

and 

“http://home.mcom.com/home/how-to-create-web-services.

html”

and 

“http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTML

Primer.html”
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

14 Ingram and Gray

“Perl” is the abbreviation for Practical

Extraction and Report Language. It was

created as a utility language to extract

information from large text files and to

manipulate that information to create

summaries and reports. Before Perl was

created, most computer languages were

designed primarily to accept and to manipulate

large volumes of numerical data. None of

those languages could gracefully handle large

volumes of textual data.

Federal Standard 1037C contains a very large

volume of text. The Standard contains more

than 5,800 separate terms and definitions and

requires more than 450 pages to print all of

them. Early experiments, using wordprocessing macros to generate Web pages,

showed that the large volume of text quickly

overwhelmed the capacity of those wordprocessing programs. Some trials showed that

such a macro might take more than a week to

convert the 5,800 terms into simple Web

Pages that contained no file linking or other

advanced HTML features.

By using Perl scripts (also called “macros” or

“programs”) those same 5,800 terms could be

converted into simple Web Pages in less than

two hours. Most of this time savings came

from the fact that

1) the Perl macros were being run on a (faster)

computer workstation rather than on a desktop

personal computer; and 

2) the Perl language is a very simple language,

and its scripts can be executed much faster

than word-processor-based macros.

Later, after all the links and advanced HTML

features had been added, this Perl-based

conversion process required about 4 hours for

complete execution. No tests were done to see

how long it might take for word-processing

macros to accomplish the same conversion,

but 8 weeks is an off-the-cuff estimate.

Illustrations of Perl script conversions are

shown in Sections 3.8.5 and 3.8.6.

One further advantage of using Perl scripts is

that the conversion process can be automated.

Workstations, such as the one used for this

project, are typically on-line 24 hours a day.

Timer programs can be created that

automatically trigger the conversion process to

run at a predetermined time. Normally, the

selected time for execution would be outside

of normal business hours, when, it is assumed,

other users of the workstation would not be

inconvenienced by the extra processing load

on that computer.

For this project, the conversion process (i.e.,

the Perl script) was set to run daily at

approximately 6:00 p.m. This conversion

process would create 5,800 new files in a few

hours—long before the next day’s scheduled

start of business. The editors of the HTML

documents could then examine the previous

day’s output Web pages, find and correct any

problems in the input ASCII files, and then

check the generated results the next day.

Also, the daily HTML files were created in a

subdirectory that was made available over the

Internet. Invited parties could view the 5,800

files with their Web browsers, and could

submit electronic comments about linking and

format errors or inconsistencies in the evolving

draft files. Local examiners could use the
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

Ingram and Gray 15

printing feature in their browser to print out

any pages with errors, circle the errors in red

ink, and hand them to the editors of the

HTML document. In this way, any discovered

errors could be fixed by the end of the business

day, allowing the corrections to be

automatically incorporated into the new

version of the files, generated later that

evening. The local examiners could view the

regenerated files the next day to verify that the

errors had been corrected. This constant

feedback was valuable to the stability of the

conversion process and for quality control of

the final product.

3.8.1 Converting to ASCII

Since Perl is mainly designed to manipulate

text, all information in the Glossary that can

not be represented by normal text must be

converted into ASCII7 characters, or deleted.

Each of the 30 data files (one for each of the

26 letters of the alphabet and 4 files for the

introductory sections and appendices) needed

to be converted from their native wordprocessing format into plain ASCII text files.

Any information contained in the non-ASCII

codes would be lost in the conversion process.

Therefore, all non-ASCII codes were removed

separately or changed to ASCII characters that

represented the intended information. Methods

for converting the various non-ASCII

characteristics of the Glossary are described in

the following sections. Automation assisted in

this otherwise time-consuming task.

3.8.2 Font Characteristics

Many of the Glossary definitions contain text

that is either bolded, italicized, superscripted,

or subscripted. A word processor will keep

track of which text is bold, for example, by

inserting special codes directly into the text of

the document. These word-processor codes

are normally invisible to the document editor

and are stored, with the document file, as

special, non-ASCII codes. These codes are

ignored when this document is converted from

the word-processing format to plain ASCII

text. As a result, all bold, italics, superscript,

and subscript information is lost.

To avoid this loss, special word-processing

macros were written and executed that would

do preemptive conversions. That is, before the

Glossary files were converted into ASCII files,

all of the unconvertible codes would be

changed into special codes that could survive

the conversion process. One macro, for

example, searches a word-processing

document, locates the word-processor’s

special code for “turn the bold on,” and

replaces it with the string, “<b>”, which is the

HTML equivalent for “turn the bold on.” The

macro also finds the matching “turn the bold

off” codes and replaces them with, “</b>”.

Four special macros had to be written (one

each for bolded, italicized, superscripted, and

subscripted text) and executed for each of the

30 files.

3.8.3 Special Characters

The Glossary files also contain a large number

of special, non-ASCII characters, such as 1

(Greek characters), 4 (mathematic symbols),

and © (typographic symbols). Without special

7

treatment, none of these characters would The ASCII code (CCITT Recommendation V.3) defines 128

allowable characters, most of which are the standard

characters found on a typewriter.
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

16 Ingram and Gray

Special Symbol HTML Code

® 

(registered

trademark)

®

N (prime) `

E (degrees) °

ç (c w/cedil) ç

• (multiplication) •

× (multiplication) ×

1⁄2 (one half) ½

& (ampersand) &

< (less than) <

> (greater than) >

ü (u w/umlaut) ü

± 

(“plus or minus”)

±

é (e w/acute) é

è (e w/grave) è

Table 2. The HTML equivalents for unusual

characters used in the Glossary.

have survived the conversion process and each

would be displayed as a blank space.

In HTML, some of these special characters

can be displayed by using certain strings of

ASCII characters. For example, the “®”

symbol can be created by inserting the string

“®” wherever the “®” character is

needed. A line of code containing this

substitution,

<i>Note:</i> Ada® is

a registered trademark

of the U.S. Government.

would be displayed on a browser as,

Note: Ada® is a

registered trademark of

the U.S. Government.

A word-processing macro was written and

executed (on all 30 files) for each special

symbol that had an HTML equivalent. Table

2 shows several special symbols or characters,

frequently used in the Glossary, with their

HTML equivalents.8

Unfortunately, not all of the special characters

used in the Glossary had equivalent HTML

character codes—none of the Greek characters

and most of the typographical characters did

not. Initial reports on future versions of

HTML show that these symbols will have

character codes created for them, but these

codes had not yet been implemented into

current versions (at the time of this report) of

network browsers. The editors did not use

these codes for the hypertext documents.

The Glossary was examined word by word. As

each new unconvertible symbol was

discovered, a bitmapped image of that symbol

was designed with graphical art software. A

special line of HTML code was inserted into

the word-processing document to replace the

unconvertible symbol. This HTML code would

8Several lists of special characters and their HTML

equivalents can be found at,

http://www.uni-passau.de/~ramsch/iso8859-1.html

or

http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/MarkUp/html-spec/

html-spec_13.html
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

Ingram and Gray 17

instruct a Web browser to display the

referenced bitmapped image into the line of

text where the symbol should be.

For example, in the following line of code,

...where <i>M</i> is the

magnitude and <img src =

"../symbols/theta.gif">

is the phase angle.

the Greek symbol 2 (Theta) is replaced by the

HTML code,

<img src =

"../symbols/theta.gif">,

which tells the browser to retrieve the

bitmapped image called “theta.gif” and display

it where the 2 should be. The result looks just

as the definition was originally intended,

...where M is the

magnitude and 2 is the

phase angle.

Several word-processing macros were created

and executed to convert all of the special

characters, in the 30 files, into links to

bitmapped images. Use of bitmapped images

to display equations is addressed in Section

3.8.5 below.

3.8.4 Reserved Characters

HTML coding uses several common ASCII

characters to represent very specific things to

the browser. The “<” and “>” characters

(commonly known as the “less than” and

“greater than” symbols) are used by HTML as

brackets or field delimiters. The browser

interprets any information after a “<” as

processing instructions that describe how to

present text and graphics. If the document

editor includes this line of text,

Use an angle x, where x

< 45, to reset the

device.

it would, unfortunately, be displayed to the

viewer as,

Use an angle x, where x 

because any information after (and including)

the symbol “<” would be interpreted as

processing commands rather than as text to be

displayed to the reader. The browser would

not recognize the characters after the “<” as a

valid processing command, and would simply

ignore them.

To avoid this problem, each mathematical use

of the symbols “<” and “>”, in the wordprocessing document, was replaced with the

HTML codes, “<” (“lt” is an abbreviation

for “less than”) and “>” (“gt” is an

abbreviation for “greater than”), respectively.

A word-processing macro was written and

executed to substitute automatically each

instance of the bona fide mathematical use of

the symbols in each of the 30 files.

Similarly, the symbol “&” (ampersand) is a

symbol that HTML uses to indicate to the

browser that the characters following it are to

be interpreted as a special display code. To

avoid problems, each instance of the

conjunctive “&” character within the text was

replaced by the HTML code, “&” (in

HTML, “amp” is an abbreviation for

“ampersand”).
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

18 Ingram and Gray

f (t) '

1

2B

d

2 2(t)

dt

2

.

3.8.5 Equations

At the time of the conversion of the Glossary

from word-processor format to HTML format,

only version 2.0 of HTML was available and

widely supported. That version did not support

the use of an in-line equation creator. Versions

3.0 and 4.0 of HTML are being created and

are likely to become available sometime in the

future. The new versions may contain codes

specifically designed for displaying equations.

Although descriptions of many of the

proposed specifications for in-line equations in

these versions are available, most browsers

will not support the equation codes until these

new versions of HTML become approved

standards. For this reason, the ITS editors

used HTML code that was currently available

and supported, to construct equations. In the

years since design of the electronic version of

FS-1037C was started, HTML versions 3.0 or

4.0, and their equation codes, have not been

approved or incorporated into any popular

browser software.

The definitions in the Glossary contain more

than 200 equations. Most of the equations are

simple equations that could be inserted directly

into a line of text using plain ASCII characters

and a few Greek and special characters (for

example, x + 7 # B * 8). Fifty of the

equations, however, were complicated enough

to warrant using the word processor’s

equation editor. The following is a sample

equation,

Version 2.0 of the HTML code does not have

any mechanism to support equations built with

a word processor’s equation editor. Even if the

individual equation components could be

converted into plain ASCII text, the final

structure of the equation could not be

guaranteed when the user viewed it with a

browser.

Most browsers have internal word-wrapping

capabilities that allow the editor of an HTML

document to be somewhat cavalier about

inserting too many or too few line breaks or

spaces between words and paragraphs. The

browser will correctly formulate the text into

neat paragraphs no matter how many extra

spaces and line breaks the editor has added to

the raw text and no matter what browser

configuration is used. While this wordwrapping feature is quite useful for displaying

paragraphs of textual information, it is

inadequate for displaying equations, for which

the relative placement of variables and symbols

on the computer screen is critically important.

Bitmapped images of the 50 complicated

equations were created and stored on the hard

disk. By using the “image display” HTML

code for each equation, the equations were

displayed, in-line, at the desired points in the

Glossary. Some sample code to display one

such equation is,

<i>Note:</i> Frequency

fluctuation, <i>f</i>

(<i>t</i>), is given by

<p> <img src =

"../equats/37c_16.gif">

<p> where <img src =

"../symbols/theta.gif">

(<i>t</i> ) is the phase

angle of the sinusoidal

wave with respect to

time, <i>t</i>.
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

Ingram and Gray 19

f (t) '

1

2B

d

2 2(t)

dt

2

,

Figure 7. A sample of an in-line image.

The result of this line of code is that the GIF

file, “37c_16.gif” (the file name for the image

of this particular equation) is inserted into

display and is shown as,

Note: Frequency

fluctuation, f(t), is

given by

where 2(t) is the phase

angle of the sinusoidal

wave with respect to

time, t.

During the process of converting the wordprocessing files into HTML files, each of the

50 equations was manually converted into a

bitmapped image, stored on a hard drive, and

replaced with a short, coded string of

characters that represented the file

name of the image. Later, a Perl script

converted the coded string into the

correct HTML code to display the

equation. For example, the Perl script

converted the string “#e37c_16#”

into the HTML code “<img src =

”../equats/37c_16.gif”>”,

which is the proper code for displaying

the subject equation.

3.8.6 Figures

As was the case for the in-line

equations, there was no way to translate the

in-line figures directly from the wordprocessing document into the HTML format.

Each of the 80 figures had to be converted into

a bitmapped image and inserted into the

HTML document with special codes.

Section 3.9.2 describes the methods used for

such conversion of the figures.

The HTML code for inserting these bitmapped

graphics into the on-line document is very

similar to the code used for inserting

equations. For example, the following lines of

code,

<a href ="../gifs/

37c-cov.gif">

<b>Telecommunications:

Glossary of

Telecommunication

Terms</b> </a> <p>

<a href = "../gifs/

37c-cov.gif"> <img src =

"../gifs/ 37c-covs.gif"

align="top"> </a>

<br>Date of Publication:

August 7, 1996<hr>

would display on a browser as shown in

Figure 7.

The HTML code, <img src=”“>, tells the

browser to display an image on the user’s

screen. In this example, the displayed image

has the name, 37c-covs.gif, and is a
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

20 Ingram and Gray

Figure 8. Sample definition with access to an on-line

illustration.

small, thumbnail version of the front cover of

FS-1037C.

A larger, more legible version of the cover is

available to the user by clicking the cursor on

the small thumbnail image. This was

accomplished by using a dynamic link,

described in Section 3.8.7.

During the process of converting the wordprocessing files into HTML files, each figure

was manually replaced with a short, coded

string of characters that represented the file

name of the appropriate figure image. Later, a

Perl script converted the coded string into the

correct HTML code to indicate to the user

that a figure is available for viewing. Unlike

the equation images, the figure images could

not reasonably be displayed in-line. Displaying

these images in-line would be

prohibitively slow for users with

slow modems or slow Internet

connections. To accommodate slow

transmission rates, a small “Pict”

icon was inserted below the

definition to inform the user that a

picture was associated with the

definition and that this picture could

be viewed by clicking on that “Pict”

icon.

For example, the Perl script would

convert the string “#idregion”

into the HTML code “<a href =

”dregion.gif”> <img src =

”$_pict.gif”></a>”. The result of the

code is displayed in Figure 8. The actual

figure that would be displayed (in this

example, when the user “clicked” on the “Pict”

icon) is shown in the lower half of Figure 5.

3.8.7 Anchors and Links

Dynamic links can be inserted into any HTML

document. Section 3.9.3 describes why editors

would want to use dynamic links in their Web

pages.

For the example used in the previous

section (Figure 8), the terms, “ionosphere,”

“attenuation,” “radio,” and “radiation” are

terms for which the reader might want to look

up individual definitions as they relate to the

current definition (they are underlined in the

figure).

A Perl script was written to examine the text

of each of the 5,800 definitions and to look for

any term name, within the text of a definition,

that was itself a term defined elsewhere within

the Glossary. This was the most complex and

time-consuming task of the automatic

conversion process.

The first step in this task was to generate a

computer file listing all 5,800 term names. This

list of terms (or “anchors list”) was used by the

Perl script to identify defined term names
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

Ingram and Gray 21

Term Name

(anchor)

Number of Links to

the Term

signal 556

data 471

system 454

transmission 452

information 387

communications 369

time 347

frequency 325

network 308

circuit 271

power 246

radio 237

user 230

computer 204

channel 188

Table 3. The Most Common Anchors in

FS-1037C

embedded within the text of other definitions.

Links were built connecting each such term

name to its own definition.

Only 4,300 of the 5,800 term names in

FS-1037C were judged to be suitable anchors

for such links. Some terms, such as those

terms designated as “deprecated” (i.e., terms

that used to be relevant to the current state of

telecommunications, and are now obsolete, but

are kept in the Glossary for backward

compatibility), were manually removed from

the anchors list. Also, any term name that was

not accompanied by a full definition (i.e., any

term name that was an abbreviation only or a

synonym only), was manually removed from

the anchors list.

Also removed from the anchors list were term

names that are heavily used in

telecommunications writings, but that were not

used in the same sense as the FS-1037C

definition. For example, the word “line” is

defined in FS-1037C specifically as a

transmission line or as a scanning line in

imaging systems. If the word “line” is used in

any other sense (a common desk dictionary

defines 40 other, valid definitions), a link to

the Glossary definition was not created, as the

FS-1037C definition would have been

misleading in that context. Table 3 lists the

most common anchors in the anchors list.

Many of the common term names in the

Glossary (such as “second,” “group,” “base,”

and “space”) shared the above problem. A

telecommunications expert was required to

examine each link created by the Perl script

and to determine whether or not that particular

link was appropriate.

The expert was required to add a simple mark

next to any words or phases that were initially

linked by the automatic link-building process,

but that should not have been linked. In cases

where approximately 90% or more of the links

to a particular term name were incorrect, that

term name was manually removed from the

anchors list. Following such removal, the linkbuilding Perl script was executed using the

shortened anchors list; the new execution
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

22 Ingram and Gray

deleted all of the removed anchors’ links from

the Web pages.

When term names were removed from the

anchors list to prevent inappropriate linking,

the process left term names unlinked in cases

where the link was appropriate and should

have been created (fewer than 10% of the

cases). In these cases, the telecommunications

expert was required to insert a special code to

those term names (within definitions) that

would force the creation of a link despite the

term name’s not being on the anchors list.

For example, the word branch is used within

34 different Glossary definitions. The

definition of branch, from FS-1037C,

describes its usage in three cases only: as

related to a) computer programming, b)

network architecture, and c) electrical power

distribution. In 31 of the 34 occurrences, the

word branch was not used in any of the three

defined connotations (in most of these nondefined connotations, it was used in relation to

telephone equipment, power balance, or as a

specific “branch of science”). Therefore,

branch was removed from the anchors list. In

the three remaining occurrences where the

word was used in its Glossary-defined sense,

special codes were inserted to force creation

of the link regardless of the removal of branch

from the anchors list.

This examination process and automatic linkbuilding process required several weeks and

many iterations to accomplish. A new Perl

script was then written specifically to delete

links from, and to add links to, term names

that had the special reviewer’s marks. 

When the final hypertext version was

completed, several more weeks were required

for double-checking all of the links both for

functionality and appropriateness.

Some term names appear more than once

within a given definition. Sometimes (but

rarely) term names appear within their own

definitions. Normally, however, a term name is

not used within its own definition because such

use would be circular and would undermine

the defining phrase. For example, it would be

circular to use the word red within the

definition of the color, red. The conversion

Perl script was designed to identify the

occurrences of a term name within a definition

and to delete any recursive or duplicitive links.

The HTML code to build a link uses the “a

href” command and looks like this:

That portion of the

<a href=”_ionosphere.htm

l”>ionosphere </a>

existing approximately

50 to 95 km above the

surface of the Earth.

In the above example, the word, ionosphere

would appear to the user as an underlined

word, usually highlighted in blue. The user

could then “click” on the underlined word and

the definition for ionosphere would replace the

current definition on the screen. The above

example would look like,

That portion of the

ionosphere existing

approximately 50 to 95

km above the surface of

the Earth.

Another example is described in Section 3.9.3.
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

Ingram and Gray 23

Figure 9. A definition showing an example of a table.

3.8.8 Tables in HTML Format

There are five tables in FS-1037C.

These tables represent data whose

presentation in tabular form

enhances comparisons, delimits

concepts, or aids in reader

comprehension.

Version 3.0 of HTML contains

commands that allow the editor of a

Web page to present data in tabular

format. Many Web browsers have

already incorporated the tablemaking codes despite the fact that

HTML version 3.0 is not yet being adopted as

a standard. The editors of FS-1037C decided

to use the table features of HTML version 3.0.

Figure 9 shows one of the Glossary

definitions that contains a table.

The HTML code to build a table is fairly

complex. Each table was completely deleted

from the word-processing file, because all of

the table-building commands are non-ASCII

codes. Then each table was reconstructed in

content and format by retyping all of it into the

final HTML files.

This is the code that was used to create the

table in Figure 9:

<table border> <tr align

= center> <td>12

channels</td> <td>

<a href = "_group.html">

group</a> </td> </tr>

<tr align = center>

<td>5 groups (60

channels) </td>

<td>super <a href =

"_group.html"> group</a>

</td> </tr> <tr align =

center> <td>5 super

groups (300 channels)

</td> <td>master <a href

= "_group.html">

group</a> (<a href =

"_ccitt.html">

CCITT</a>)</td> </tr>

<tr align = center>

<td>10 super groups (600

channels)</td>

<td>master <a href =

"_group.html">group</a>

(U.S. <a href =

"_standard.html">

standard</a>) </td>

</tr> <tr align =

center> <td>6 U.S.

master groups (3600

channels)</td> <td>jumbo

<a href = "_group.html">

group</a> </td> </tr>

</table> <p></b>

Appendix A of the Glossary is an extremely

large table of abbreviations and acronyms,

many of which are used in the text of the

Standard. This large table requires special

loading instructions, which are given in the

“hints” section. As in the rest of the Glossary,

hypertext links in the large table of Appendix

A allow the viewer to click on defined entries
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

24 Ingram and Gray

Figure 10. The main menu bar for the

hypertext version of FS-1037C.

to view the definition of the linked

abbreviation or acronym. 

Appendix B of this paper contains a Web

address that describes, in more detail, the

techniques of table creation.

3.9 Display Considerations

3.9.1 Large Files

The FS-1037C editors designed the Web

pages to be as user-friendly as possible. One of

the ways in which they preserved the userfriendly presentation was by limiting the

amount of information and graphics on any

one Web page. Further, they accommodated

viewers with slow Internet connections by

sizing graphics carefully and by providing

clickable icons for viewers to view the

expanded graphics. The results of these

considerations promoted a clean, uncluttered

look to the finished Web page.

If all of the information on a single page of the

hard copy of the Glossary were presented as a

single Web page, it could cause intolerable

delays when accessing the Standard. Instead,

the Web pages for the Glossary were designed

as if they were a series of index cards. Each

Web page is kept small, with just a title

(usually the term name), the relevant

information (usually the term definition), and

links to other information (usually a diagram

or other definitions). Various menus allow the

viewer to jump to specific definitions and

sections of the Standard. By using this format,

the viewer is able to navigate 5,800 different

terms and definitions with almost no delay at

all.

For the hypertext version of the Glossary,

several menu bars were created that allow the

user to “jump” quickly to other parts of the

document. The menu bar across the bottom of

the Web page (Figure 10) contains buttons

that allow the user to jump to any other main

section of the document.

The “Help” button of the menu, for example,

displays basic information about how to use

and navigate through the Web pages. The

“Files” button of the menu provides the user

with a menu of options that allows the user to

download compressed versions of the

Glossary files and other files related to the

Glossary. The “Index” button of the menu

displays Appendix B (of FS-1037C), which is

a list of the major subject headings in the

Glossary. Under each major heading in

Appendix B is a list of terms associated with

those subjects. Each term name in Appendix B

is cross-linked to its respective definition and

can be accessed in hypertext form with a

mouse click.

The “A-Z” button of the menu (Figure 11) is

equivalent to a Table of Contents for the

Glossary. By clicking on the Foreword,

Introduction, Appendix A, or Appendix B

menu items, the user causes the selected

section to be displayed on the screen.

If any of the letters of the alphabet is selected,

the “A-Z” menu is replaced with a menu of

term names beginning with that letter, as

shown in Figure 12.
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

Ingram and Gray 25

Figure 11. The “Table of Contents” menu

bar.

Figure 12. The beginning of the list of term

names for the letter “D”.

From this list of term names for a particular

letter, the user can scroll through the term

names and select a particular definition to

view. The ITS editors chose to display the

hypertext version of the Glossary in a

“frames” format on the screen. The frames, for

purposes of discussion, are numbered as

shown in Figure 1. When the specific term

name is selected, the main viewing frame

(Frame #1) is replaced by a display of the

definition(s) for that term (Figure 8; frames

are discussed in detail in Section 4.2).

The list of term names remains on the screen in

Frame #2, while the selected definition appears

in Frame #1. This configuration allows the

user to select and view term names that are in

alphabetic proximity to the selected one. The

list of term names (in Frame #2) is headed by

menu items that allow the user to jump ahead

to the next letter of the alphabet or to go back

to the previous letter. (Of course, the user may

also click on the “A-Z” icon to go to any
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

26 Ingram and Gray

Figure 13. The Glossary image for

“downlink” (vector graphics).

other, nonadjacent-letter section of the

Glossary.)

3.9.2 Figures and Illustrations

Most of the 80 figures were created with one

specific, commercial drawing package. The

chosen drawing package uses vector graphics

(Figure 13) to draw and to store the diagrams.

Many other drawing packages use bitmapped

(raster) graphics only; these bitmapped

packages are commonly referred to as “paint”

programs. The differences between vector

graphics and bitmapped graphics are

highlighted below.

An image created with a typical paint program

is static. A virtual grid is created in the

computer’s memory. At each intersection of

the grid (called a “pixel”), a byte of

information exists that indicates to the

computer what specific color to display, on the

computer screen, at that pixel location. The

result is an image that is conceptually similar

to a computerized scoreboard at a sporting

event, with each pixel in a bitmapped image

being equivalent to a single light on the

scoreboard.

Unfortunately, a bitmapped image will look

“grainy” if it is enlarged, just as if a person

were to look at the computerized scoreboard

while standing only a few feet in front of it.

The graininess problem can be reduced by

creating a denser grid of pixels (See Figure

14, Figure 15, and Figure 16). But, since

each pixel requires a fixed amount of computer

storage space, the total space required to store

a bitmapped image increases geometrically

relative to its increasing grid density.

Vector graphic representations, on the other

hand, create virtual images. Almost all parts of

the image are represented by straight lines

(vectors). Each line is stored in memory as a

set of coordinates and associated attributes

(starting point, ending point, color, width,

etc.), and each line is drawn on the screen at

the time when the user views the image. For

moderately complicated images, a drawing

stored as vector graphics requires significantly

less space than is required for storage of the

same image as bitmapped graphics (at usable

resolutions). Table 4 lists file-size

requirements for selected bitmapped images

and for a comparable vector graphics image.
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

Ingram and Gray 27

Figure 14. The Glossary image for

“downlink” (550 × 600 pixel bitmapped

graphics).

Figure 15. The Glossary image for

“downlink” (275 × 300 pixel bitmapped

graphics).

Figure 16. The Glossary image for

“downlink” (90 × 100 pixel bitmapped

graphics).

Vector graphics do not suffer from the

graininess problem when expanded. Since all

parts of the drawing are stored as a series of

lines, the drawing is created “fresh” every time

a user views it. It can be viewed at any

resolution and the lines will be redrawn to look

sharp at that particular resolution.

While all 80 of the images for the paper

version of the Glossary were created and

stored as vector graphics, the HTML and the

network browsers had no way to create and

display vector graphics for the viewer of a

Web page. All images displayed by a network

browser must be transmitted and displayed as

bitmapped images. Therefore, each of the

Glossary images was converted into

bitmapped graphics.
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

28 Ingram and Gray

Image File Format

(pixels)

File Size; Disk

Space Required (in

bytes)

90 × 100 bitmapped

(Figure 16)

10,280

vector graphics

(Figure 13)

29,416

275 × 300

bitmapped

(Figure 15)

83,880

550 × 600

bitmapped

(Figure 14)

332,280

Table 4. Different File-Size Requirement for

Storage of Different File Formats

This conversion process was accomplished by

loading the vector images into computer

memory and displaying the image on the

screen. Then, the image was captured from the

screen, cropped, resized to the required image

size, and stored as a bitmapped file. The

appropriate dimensions for the final, cropped

image were the subject of some debate.

A bitmapped image that is 10 pixels by 10

pixels, for example, contains 100 pixels and

requires (100 * t + h) amount of time to

transmit to the user, where t is the amount of

time needed to transmit one pixel, and h is the

amount of time needed to establish the

transmission (i.e.,the overhead). An image that

is 20 by 20 pixels contains 400 pixels and

would take approximately four times longer to

transmit than an image that is 10 by 10 pixels.

Table 4 shows the file sizes for three possible

resolutions for one of the images used in the

Glossary. Note that the file size for Figure 15

is approximately (allowing for some overhead

bits within each image) nine times larger than

Figure 16, while the file size of Figure 14 is

approximately four times larger than the file

size of Figure 15.

Many users of the on-line Glossary are

connected to the Internet by fast

communication lines. For these users, the

screen size of the images in the Glossary is not

a major concern, with regard to time spent

waiting to receive transmission of the entire

image over the communications line. For these

users, the time needed to receive a large

bitmapped image is only a fraction of a second

more than that required to receive a smaller

image.

A user who is accessing the Glossary with a

modem, through a commercial ISP, or through

a local firewall, may not be able to receive

large amounts of data in an acceptable amount

of time. For these users, small images are very

much preferred over large images.

The results of simple transmission tests are

shown in Table 5. The increase in transmission

time is not linearly related to the file size

because of the overhead time needed to

establish and maintain the transmission link.
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

Ingram and Gray 29

File Resolution

Time to

Transmit

via direct

connection

(seconds)

Time to

Transmit

via 14.4-

kb/s

modem

(seconds)

90 × 100

bitmapped

(Figure 16)

0.15 11.4

275 × 300

bitmapped

(Figure 15)

0.18 46.6

550 × 600

bitmapped

(Figure 14)

0.55 192.1

Table 5. Transmission Times for Different

File Resolutions

For a user connected via a direct

communications line, the difference in

transmission times is small enough to be

almost unnoticeable (only a 0.4-s difference

between the graphics displayed in Figure 16

and Figure 14). For a user connected via a

14.4-kb/s modem, the receive-time difference

can be as much as 3 min. Such a delay may be

unacceptable to that user.

Although the graphics in Figure 16 transmit

much faster than the other two sample figures,

their image quality is too poor to be used for

the on-line version of the Glossary. The

resolution of the graphics in Figure 15 is also

too grainy (in the editors’ opinions) to be

used.

Determining the appropriate pixel density for

a presentation is always dependant on the final

presentation medium. Amateur photography

equipment has an equivalent resolution of

approximately 4,000 dots per inch (DPI). The

master copy of this report was printed on a

printer that prints with a resolution of 600

DPI. Traditional offset printing (as was done

with this report) and photocopying or

reproduction with dithering cannot preserve

resolution rates much more than approximately

400 DPI (which is why the reader of this

report probably cannot see much of a

difference between Figure 13 and Figure 14).

For comparison, it is noted that a 15-inch (38-

cm; measured diagonally) computer monitor

(set to display 1024 × 768 pixels), has a

resolution of approximately 115 DPI.

As each bitmapped image was created for the

Glossary, the smallest size—in the opinion of

the Glossary editors—that was still readable

on a computer screen, was used. This size was

slightly different for each display image, and

usually resulted in an image size approximately

200 to 400 pixels wide by 200 to 400 pixels

tall. The display-image quality is between the

qualities shown in Figure 14 and Figure 15.

The actual display-image resolution selected

for the image shown in Figure 13 was 305 ×

343 pixels, which displays on a 15-inch (38-

cm) monitor as an image approximately 31⁄4 ×

33⁄4 in. (8.3 × 9.5 cm).

For the hard copy of the Glossary, all of the

diagrams were created as black and white

vector graphics. When converting the images

for use with the on-line version, the editors

added color to the diagrams, and, very

occasionally, they increased the size of the
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

30 Ingram and Gray

fonts within the diagrams to ensure readability

of the displayed text at the chosen resolution.

3.9.3 Anchors and Links

Browsers support the concept of “linking,”

which allows the creator of the HTML

document to highlight certain parts of the text

that are destined to be accessed by a click of a

mouse. When the user sees one of these

highlighted areas, the user moves the cursor

onto that area and presses the cursor button or

mouse button. Doing this causes the browser

to load a completely different section of the

document (or an entirely different document).

It is the responsibility of the editor of the

HTML document to build the link and to

select an appropriate destination for the user.

The on-line version of the Glossary relies on

this kind of hypertext linking. The Glossary

contains more than 5,800 terms that are all

related to Government telecommunications

efforts. Inevitably, many of the words used to

define a particular term are, themselves,

defined elsewhere in the Glossary. For

example, the following term and its definitions,

from the Glossary, contains four terms (that

are underlined) that are also defined elsewhere

in the Glossary,

graded-index profile: In

the core of an optical

fiber, a plot of the

variation of refractive

index such that the

refractive index

decreases with

increasing radial

distance from the fiber

axis.

In the HTML version of this definition, the

user may click on any of the highlighted,

underlined terms, which will cause the

definition for that term to replace the current

one on the screen in Frame #1. The user may,

in turn, select any highlighted, underlined term

within that new definition so as to view an

almost endless series of related terms and

definitions.

Each link in a hypertext document must have

a corresponding anchor point. The anchor

point is considered the destination point for a

particular link. When a user selects the link,

the Web system searches for the appropriate

document, as determined by the link code, and,

if that document is found, the browser displays

that new Web page on the screen. The

example in Figure 17 illustrates the

fundamental concept of linking and the

technique for achieving it. In the example,

when a user clicks on the “beam” hot spot

within the upper left box, the “defs.html” file is

retrieved and displayed, starting from the

anchor point whose name is “beam.”

Each link on a Web page points toward a

single target anchor. An anchor, on the other

hand, may have a limitless number of links

pointing to it.

For a Web page to function correctly, the

page editor must ensure that every link points

to a valid anchor. Excess anchors, however,

will not cause the Web page to function

incorrectly and will be unnoticed by the user.

The editors of FS-1037C tested the

functioning of all links in the hypertext version

of the Glossary.
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

Ingram and Gray 31

Figure 17. A conceptual diagram of links and anchors invoked when a user activates a hypertext

definition.

Figure 18. Part of a sample definition showing the use of symbols.
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

32 Ingram and Gray

3.9.4 Equations and Symbols

The equations, symbols, and special characters

used for this Glossary are all displayed “inline” (as described in Sections 3.8.5 and

3.8.6). When the user views a page with such

graphics, the graphics are displayed in the

correct position on the screen.

Each equation is displayed on its own line

immediately following its mention in the text

of the definition. The remainder of the

definition follows the displayed equation.

The images of the symbols and special

characters are displayed within the sentence or

word where they are used. In Figure 18, the

symbols 2, B, and p are all displayed as in-line

images. The symbols E and 1⁄2 are displayed as

HTML characters (see Section 3.8.3).

The size of the equations and symbol images

was selected to match the displayed size of

normal text on a typical browser. The results,

however, were not always satisfactory. For

example, the title of each term name is

displayed in a font size twice as large as the

basic font, and any in-line symbols included in

a title will, therefore, be displayed half as large

as the surrounding text.

4. WWW DISTRIBUTION

This section provides information on sources

for FS-1037C, as well as a discussion of

hardware and software considerations for the

hypertext version of the Glossary.

The hypertext version of the Glossary can be

stored in slightly more than 10 Mb of storage

space. Additional features, such as compressed

files (the 20 Mb of word-processing files

compressed into approximately 7 Mb) and

PDF files, increase the storage space needed to

more than 30 Mb. Relative to many other Web

sites, this is still a rather small set of Web

pages. The pages and subpages of information

need to be stored on a fast and reliable

computer with abundant available disk space

and high-speed connections to the Internet.

Many commercial ISP’s can supply storage

space that meets these requirements. The

hypertext files for the Glossary are stored on

and are available from a computer at the NTIA

Institute for Telecommunication Sciences,

U.S. Department of Commerce in Boulder,

Colorado.

4.1 Equipment Considerations

To view the hypertext files on the Web, the

reader must use a browser on a computer that

has reliable access to the Internet. The

preferable connection method is a physical

attachment to a local area network that is, in

turn, connected via a fast communications line

to the Internet. This kind of connection can

provide very fast access to the Glossary

hypertext files.

The other common method of connection is

via a modem. Typically, the modem user

connects his or her computer, via conventional

telephone lines, to a computer host that is

connected to the Internet. Transmission speeds

for these modem connections are usually 14.4,

28.8 or 56 kb/s.

4.2 Software Considerations

In designing the Web pages for the Glossary,

special considerations were given to the

software that the user might use to view the

pages. The whole development of the World

Wide Web is still relatively new, and the
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

Ingram and Gray 33

Figure 19. The main Glossary page (viewed with Frames).

Figure 20. The main page from the Glossary (viewed

without Frames).

coding used to create and display Web pages

is still in the process of stabilizing.

As a result, many different versions of Web

browsers are currently in use. Older versions

of browsers cannot recognize some features

that are standard on later versions. For

example, in 1995, the designers of HTML

added a new feature called Frames. The

Frames feature allows the designer

of a Web site to display several

different Web pages on the screen

all at the same time, each in a

separate portion of the screen,

called a Frame. The four Web

pages, each in its own Frame, are

shown in Figure 19.

In Frame #1 is the Main

page (shown by itself as Figure 20).

In Frame #2 is the “A-Z” page (also

known as the Table of Contents, see

Figure 11). The Clock page is

shown in Frame #3, and the Menu

Bar (see Figure 10) is shown in

Frame #4. As the user selects

various items from the menus, the

contents of different frames are replaced (in

frames 1 or 2) by the selected pages.

Most browsers released before 1995 will not

be able to recognize the Frames features and

will only display the information that is

destined to be in Frame #1 (Figure 20).

The hypertext version of the Glossary has

been designed to be usable by

viewers with older browsers.

Viewers with older browsers will be

required to navigate the Web pages

one at a time. The helpful menus

(such as those in Figure 10) will not

remain on the screen while the

viewer reads other information.

Demonstrations with such older

browsers show that the progression

through the Glossary pages is

relatively slow, but is still

straightforward and intuitive.
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

34 Ingram and Gray

Some users turn off all graphics from their

display (to speed transmission time), and some

other users are limited to using browsers that

can display text only. While these browsers are

quick and efficient, they cannot display any

graphical information transmitted by Web

pages. Web-page authors can include short

descriptive text, for each graphic, that will be

displayed when a browser cannot display the

graphic itself. The Glossary does not contain

such descriptive text, since it was determined

that the graphics were too complicated to be

represented by a short line of text.

Instead, viewers of the Glossary who are using

a text-only browser will see an empty box

where a graphic image would have been

displayed. Most text-only browsers will,

however, allow the user to download and save

the graphic onto their hard drive. The user can

then view the saved graphics file with any

number of graphics-viewing programs.

5. CD ROM DISTRIBUTION

As part of the sponsored effort, FS-1037C , in

hypertext, was also made available to

computer users on CD ROM. While supplies

last, copies of the CD ROM can be obtained

(for domestic use only [this is due to

restrictive licensing agreements for the

browser software]) from

National Communications System

Attn: J. Orndorff

701 South Court House Road

Arlington, VA 22204-2198

phone: (703) 607-6204

After examining several different formats, the

Glossary editors developed the CD to include

both PDF files and hypertext files.

PDF files are simple variants of Postscript®

files. Postscript® files are self-contained files

that can be transferred to another user who

will then be able to copy the file to any

Postscript® printer to produce an exact copy of

the original printed document.

PDF files can be printed to any kind of printer

and can be viewed on any computer (with

specialized reading software called

AcrobatTM). The AcrobatTM program is

available, to any user, as freeware (i.e., free of

charge). To actually create the PDF files, the

ITS editors used other specialized software

(for which a fee was charged).

5.1 Software Considerations

The PDF and hypertext files on the CD ROM

can be read by any user who has a properly

installed PDF reader or hypertext browser,

respectively. For this project, the editors

judged that the user would be predominately

responsible for providing and configuring his

or her own viewing software.

Some consideration was given, however, to

those users who might not have complete

access to browsers and PDF readers. The CD

ROM is preconfigured with the Windows®

version of the freeware reader called

AcrobatTM. If the user is using a PC-based
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

Ingram and Gray 35

[autorun]

OPEN=ACROREAD.EXE

CONTENTS.PDF

ICON=MISC\1037C2.ICO

Figure 21. The AUTORUN.INF file on the

CD ROM.

Figure 22. The icon displayed when the CD

ROM is running.

computer and the Windows® 3.1 (or later)

operating system, a batch file is available in the

root directory that will begin running the

AcrobatTM reader with the Table of Contents

PDF already loaded.

Additionally, for users of the Windows 95®

operating system, the CD ROM is configured

to run the AcrobatTM program automatically

when the CD ROM is inserted into the drive.

A small “auto run” file (shown in Figure 21)

was created to trigger this automatic loading.

Whenever any CD is placed in a Windows 95®

CD drive, the operating system looks for a file

in the root directory called “AUTORUN.INF”.

If this file is found, the system will begin to

execute the command listed in the “OPEN”

line. In this case, the file to be run is

ACROREAD.EXE, which is the AcrobatTM

reader program. Also, the icon listed in the

ICON line (Figure 22) will be displayed

whenever this CD is referenced by the

operating system.

5.2 Hardware Considerations

As mentioned earlier, a single CD ROM can

store as much as 660 Mb of data, and the files

on a CD ROM can be read by many different

brands and models of personal computers.

In the early development and use of CD

ROM’s, a CD created by one computer

operating system was generally unreadable by

any other system. Over the last five years,

however, most operating systems have been

adopting standards that allow the reading of

CD ROM’s created by other systems.

Informal tests were conducted by ITS to

ensure that the CD ROM used for this project

could be read by Macintosh-, DOS-, and

UNIX-based systems. The tests showed that

each of these systems required up-to-date

hardware and software to be able to read the

CD. Several older configurations were not able

to read some of the files properly.

The recipient of the CD product is expected to

ensure that his or her computer hardware and

software is up-to-date, allowing him or her to

properly read the Glossary CD. Some copies

of up-to-date, freely distributable software are

included on the CD ROM for the convenience
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

36 Ingram and Gray

of the user. It is not expected that such

software can always be useful for all users.

6. CONCLUSIONS

Federal Standard 1037C on the Web and on

CD ROM represents successful applications of

HTML. In several ways, the large

telecommunications glossary was ideally suited

for presentation in hypertext format. The most

significant advantage to the hypertext format

is the rapidity with which users can jump from

definition to definition without having to turn

a precise (and often large) number of pages to

arrive at the next desired definition. Yet, the

very great size of the Glossary introduced one

of the biggest hurdles in its hypertext

development. The ITS editors of the Glossary

surmounted that hurdle by using Perl scripts to

generate automatically the many thousands of

required hyperlinks in the large glossary.

Developing user-friendly HTML files for large

documents and for wide distribution (via the

Web and CD ROM) requires careful

processing and special considerations. Among

the issues required in the development of

HTML files for FS-1037C, Glossary of

Telecommunication Terms, were the

following:

U ease of use (e.g., ability to navigate

forward, backward, to the index, to the table

of contents, and to any selected

paragraph/frame/definition, all with a

minimum of steps and with a clear context

map maintained in one of the frames);

U ability to display equations, symbols, and

Greek letters;

U software for the automatic generation of

the anchors list of defined terms;

U software for the automatic generation of

links to defined terms;

U appropriateness of all automatically

generated links;

U tests of the functionality of all links;

U picture size with ranges of monitor

quality (granularity considerations);

U picture size with various speeds of

modems (transmission-time concerns);

U adding color to the 80 illustrations to

enhance information transfer; and

U development of sections providing a

welcome, help, hints, credits, and addresses

for hard copies 

The HTML version of FS-1037C was placed

on the Web for the first time on July 26, 1996.

As of May 1998, the page has been accessed

more than 75,000 times. The access rate has

remained steady at about 75 accesses per day.

While these numbers are not remarkable

compared to other, commercial Web pages

(that can have thousands of accesses per

hour), what makes these numbers interesting is

that many of these users are repeat users,

indicating that the Glossary is serving them as

a pragmatic resource.

Initial feedback shows that viewers of the site

find it to be useful and intuitive. Some rough

analysis of the first 3,400 initial accesses

shows that at least 90 different users have

accessed the Glossary at least 5 times each

(some individual users have accessed the

Glossary as many as 30 times each). This

history shows that the Glossary is becoming a

resource that viewers will use as a repeat online reference, looking up terms and definitions

as they are needed.
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

Ingram and Gray 37

[1] Garcia, “A new role for government in

standard setting?” StandardView, vol. 1, no.

1, 1993.

[2] E. Gray, W. Ingram, and D. Bodson,

“The ABCs of writing a technical glossary,”

Technical Communication, vol. 45, no. 1,

pp. 23-32, Feb. 1998.

[3] E. Gray, and D. Bodson, “Preserving

due process in standards work,”

StandardView, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 130-139,

Dec. 1995.

This Glossary supplements advances in

technology by providing a standardized,

agreed-upon vocabulary with which to record

and communicate these advances. Unless these

advances can be communicated

unambiguously, the advances will be lost, and

all the benefits associated with them.

FS-1037C, which contains standardized

vocabulary for telecommunications

terminology that is mandatory for all Federal

Government departments and agencies, is a

hallmark against that loss. The Glossary

extends the benefits of common vocabulary to

the designer, manufacturers, and to the world

marketplace.

7. REFERENCES
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

38 Ingram and Gray

Abbreviations & Definitions

ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange

CD ROM compact disk read-only memory

DPI dots per inch

FED-STD Federal Standard

FS Federal Standard

FTSC Federal Telecommunications Standards Committee

GIF Graphics interchange format

GSA General Services Administration

GII Global Information Infrastructure

HTML Hypertext Markup Language

ISP Internet service provider

ITS Institute for Telecommunication Sciences

NCS National Communications System

NCSA National Center for Supercomputing Applications

NII National Information Infrastructure

NTIA National Telecommunications and Information Administration

NTIS National Technical Information Service 

PDF portable document format

Perl Practical Extraction and Report Language

URL universal resource locator

Web World Wide Web

WWW World Wide Web
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

9These definitions were taken directly from FS-1037C.

Ingram and Gray 39

Appendix A: Vocabulary from FS-1037C9

browser: Any computer software program for reading hypertext. Note 1: Browsers are usually

associated with the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW). Note 2: A browser may be

able to access information in many formats, and through different services including HTTP,

FTP, Gopher, and Archie.

client: In networking, a software application that allows the user to access a service from a server

computer, e.g., a server computer on the Internet.

hypertext: The system of coding that is used to create or navigate hypermedia in a consequential

manner.

HTML: Abbreviation for Hypertext Markup Language. An application of SGML (Standard

Generalized Markup Language) implemented in conjunction with the World Wide Web to

facilitate the electronic exchange and display of simple documents using the Internet.

[The] Internet: A worldwide interconnection of individual networks operated by Government,

industry, academia, and private parties. Note: The Internet originally served to interconnect

laboratories engaged in government research, and has now been expanded to serve millions

of users and a multitude of purposes.

protocol: 1. A formal set of conventions governing the format and control of interaction among

communicating functional units. Note: Protocols may govern portions of a network, types of

service, or administrative procedures. For example, a data link protocol is the specification

of methods whereby data communications over a data link are performed in terms of the

particular transmission mode, control procedures, and recovery procedures. 2. In layered

communications system architecture, a formal set of procedures that are adopted to facilitate

functional interoperation within the layered hierarchy.

server: A network device that provides service to the network users by managing shared resources.

Note 1: The term is often used in the context of a client-server architecture for a local area

network (LAN). Note 2: Examples are a printer server and a file server.

World Wide Web (WWW): An international, virtual-network-based information service composed

of Internet host computers that provide on-line information in a specific hypertext format.

Note 1: WWW servers provide hypertext markup language (HTML) formatted documents

using the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). Note 2: Information on the WWW is accessed

with a hypertext browser such as Mosaic, Viola, or Lynx. Note 3: No hierarchy exists in the

WWW, and the same information may be found by many different approaches.
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

40 Ingram and Gray
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

Ingram and Gray 41

Appendix B: Selected Web Addresses

This table contains several WWW addresses (URL’s) that are mentioned in this report or that are

related to the subjects in this report (Note: Each URL must be typed exactly as it appears, including

all capitalization and punctuation). All of these Web addresses were verified to be correct as of

January 18, 2000.

Table B-1. Selected Web Addresses

Description of the Site

Relevant

Section in this

Report

URL

Federal Standard 1037C:

Telecommunications: Glossary

of Federal Telecommunication

Terms

Section 1,

page 1

http://glossary.its.bldrdoc.goc/fs-1037c

The National Communications

System

Section 3,

page 6

http://164.117.147.223/

The Institute for

Telecommunication Sciences 

Section 3,

page 6

http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/

The National

Telecommunications &

Information Administration

Section 3,

page 6

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/

U.S. Department of Commerce Section 3,

page 6

http://www.doc.gov/

A Beginner’s Guide to HTML Section 3.5,

page 10

http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General

/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html

The Web Developer’s Virtual

Library

Section 3.5,

page 10

http://WWW.Stars.com/

Creating Net Sites Section 3.5,

page 10

http://home.mcom.com/home

/how-to-create-web-services.html

A Short History of Internet

Protocols at CERN

Section 3.6,

page 10

http://wwwcn.cern.ch/pdp/ns/ben

/TCPHIST.html
A Federal Standard on Electronic Media

42 Ingram and Gray

National Center for

Supercomputing Applications

Section 3.6,

page 10

http://www.ncsa.edu/

The Perl Language Home Page Section 3.8,

page 13

http://mox.perl.com/perl/index.html

The HTML Coded Character Set Section 3.8.3,

page 15

http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW

/MarkUp/html-spec/html-spec_13.html

iso8859-1 table Section 3.8.3,

page 15

http://www.uni-passau.de/~ramsch

/iso8859-1.html

Introducing HTML 3.2 Section 3.8.5,

page 18

http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW

/MarkUp/Wilbur/

How to Build Tables in HTML Section 3.8.8,

page 23

http://home.mcom.com/assist

/net_sites/tables.html

The Netscape Frames Tutorial Section 4.2,

page 32

http://www.newbie.net/frames/

Adobe Systems Inc. Section 5,

page 34

http://www.adobe.com/

Traversing Cyberspace Appendix A,

page 38

http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Indices

/Discover/TraversingCyber.html

European Laboratory for Particle

Physics

Appendix A,

page 38

http://delinfo.cern.ch/