Multimedia Glossary

FIF: Fractal Image Format; FIF is a bitmap compression format for storing graphic file data. Fractals are geometrically describable units originally developed by Benoit Mandelbrot in the 1960s that reflect the patterns of nature much better than traditional Euclidean geometry.

File: A file is the storage unit of a digital document. Files are typically stored with file extensions (such as *.html for HTML files, or *.JPEG for JPEG files) that are linked to the programs that can interpret the digital data of the document. A digital document typically consists of a set of files. For example, a web document typically consists of a base HTML file. Associated with this file there may be any number of graphic files (for images), style files, script files, etc. All http compliant files can be accessed from a browser as local files from a client computer.

File extensions: File extensions are listed alphabetically, but there is also a single document containing all the file extensions for easy reference.

Finger: Finger is a method used for determining user data on a server such as which users are currently logged onto the network, or their contact details.

.fla: A Flash file extension; The .fla file extension is used for the basic Flash document file, used in the development context. After its development, a Flash document needs to be "published" to the Web. It then gets a .swf extension which can be played with a Flash player.

FPI: Formal Public Identifier; The FPI is part of the Document Type Declaration (DTDecl). This is an identifier (a statement) informing a user agent what kind of document follows. It is usually followed by a URI where the relevant DTD can be found.; Example:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">; This FPI reads:
The type of document that follows is an HTML document. The DTD is publically available (not on a private system). The DTD is not an ISO standard (indicated by the -). The owner of the DTD is the W3C. The SGML application is HTML. The release of HTML is 4.0. The specification is in English.

FTP: File Transfer Protocol; FTP is a protocol for transferring files between systems, i.e. different computers in a network. The function of FTP is thus very similar to copying files between different disks on a PC. The difference is that the files are transported via a network to a different computer, and not between, say, a hard drive and a stiffy.; FTP uses connection-oriented TCP, thus better than TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol), which is quicker than FTP. But with TFTP you have to wait until the entire file is downloaded before you may discover that there were bad frames and have to start downloading again. FTP checks the frames while they are downloading.; The ftp service is used for transferring files between computers, regardless of where they are on The Internet. A user typically needs ftp privileges to use this service, but ISP's often allow access as a guest. Sometimes a server may allow ftp from their server, but not to it. For example, you may download files from the server, but cannot upload to it.

Multimedia Glossary: F