Choose the definitions to the following terms.

 

database                                           An order which the computer can obey. Synonymous with

                                                        ‘instruction’.

 

bus                                                  A file of structured data.

 

command                                        A set of rules which determine the formats by which information

                                                        may be exchanged between different systems.

 

database program                            A channel, or highway, which carries signals between units

                                                         in the CPU.

 

protocol                                           An applications program used to store, organize and retrieve

                                                         a large collection of data. Among other facilities, data can be

                                                         searched, sorted and updated.

 

Try to answer the questions.

 

1. For what purposes is the word ‘database’ used?

2. What is the problem space?

3. What does the term data model mean?

4. What does it include?

5. What can you tell about the database schema?

6. What is the database engine?

7.What doesn’t the term database include?

 

5. Try to define what a Database is.           

                                    

                                                

 

                                                         UNIT 11

Read the text, try to understand it.

                                              XML Basics

 

   XML, or Extensible Markup Language, is not new. In fact, it’s a subset of SGML, the Standardized General Markup Language, modified for use on the Web. SGML was originally developed by Goldfarb, Mosher, and Lorie at IBM in 1969, as a way to structure legal documents; it has evolved over time into an international standard for representing textual data in system-independent format. Since SGML is overly complex for the requirements of the Web, XML has evolved as a modified (read: simpler) version of SGML, adapted specifically for use on the Web.

While HTML is great for putting together Web pages, it doesn’t offer any way to describe the data contained within those pages. As a formatting language, it doesn’t offer any mechanism to define structures within the document, thereby limiting its usefulness. The fact that it understands a limited set of tags – and even that frequently depends on which browser you’re using – reduces its flexibility and makes it difficult to extend its usefulness to other applications.

XML was designed to avoid these disadvantages by creating a markup language which would be simple yet flexible, easy to use yet powerful enough to offer a variety of different applications. Briefly, the original design goals for XML were: XML should be simple and easy to use. XML should support a variety of different applications, by allowing users to develop their own markup.

XML documents should precisely follow certain formally-defined rules and principals. XML documents should be human-legible and reasonably clear.

Over the past year and a half, the XML universe has grown by leaps and bounds to include many new technologies, most with hard-to-remember acronyms. Here’s a quick list of the important ones, and how they fit into the larger picture:

XML Schema makes it possible to define the structure and format of “classes” of XML documents, providing more advanced features than those offered by the regular Document Type Definition (DTD).

XLink is a specification for linking XML data structures together, in much the same way as the hyperlinks available in HTML… although Xlink allows for far more sophisticated types of links, including simultaneous links to more than one resource.

XPointer is a specification for navigating the hierarchical tree structure if an XML document, and referencing elements, attributes and other data structures within the document.

XSL and XSLT: The Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) makes it possible to apply presentation rules to XML documents, and convert – or transform – them from one format to another.

XHTML: The next version of HTML, XHTML combines the precision of XML markup with the easy-to-understand tags of HTML to create a more powerful and flexible language.

XForms offers a way to improve the current crop of HTML-based forms by separating the function of the form from its appearance, thereby making it possible to easily adapt a form for display on a variety of devices and systems.

XML Query: The XML Query effort is focused on creating a specification that makes it possible to query one or more XML documents and generate usable result data (in much the same way as SQL is used to retrieve database records).

XML Encryption is a means of encrypting and decrypting XML documents, so as secure it against unauthorized usage.

 

The words to the text:

 

to evolve               развивать(ся), развертывать(ся)

overly                   чрезмерно

to adopt                принимать, усваивать

brief                      короткий, лаконичный

precise                  точный, аккуратный

ancillary               подчиненный, вспомогательный

acronym               сокращение

simultaneous        одновременный

crop                      обилие, масса, совокупность

query                    вопрос, неточность

retrieve                 возвращать, восстанавливать, исправлять