Title: A Simple Introduction to Using Computers (Part 1)

This article is quite brief. A long version is online at:
A Complex Introduction to Using Computers (Part 2)
And yes, the files on my website are on a case-sensitive file system.

Advanced information is available at the URI:
Digital Security Wiki

Digital.Security.Wiki.html is an example of a Wiki, which is a web page
containing a very clever program which gives you many useful features.
Specifically, I always use TiddyWikis, from https://tiddlywiki.com/

Learning to use a computer is, unfortunately, a long & complex process.
You have been warned.
In this article I will present my advice in Q & A format.

Q 1: What does https stand for?
A: https is the acronym of Hyper-Text Transmission Protocol Secure Version.
The 's' is optional. With 's' present the messages transmitted are encrypted.
Clearly, for banking etc purposes you ALWAYS want to see that 's' present.

Q 2: But why did you call it a URI when everybody else calls is a URL?
A: Ah - I thought you would never ask :-). The URL moniker is wrong.
URL refers only to the part after the domain name (savage.net.au).
So the URL is actually /misc/Digital.Security.Wiki.html.
The structure is thus: URI = ProtocolName://DomainName/URL.

Q 3: Can we ever force everyone to say - correctly - URI rather than URL?
A: No. That is a lost cause. Sigh.

Q 4: How does browsing on the internet work?
A: The complexity is vast, beyond imagination, so here I will give you just
a brief introduction.

You usually use a program called a Browser, whose proper name is Web Client.
Computer Operating Systems have various types of browsers, eg file browsers,
but Browser has come to be the near-universal abbreviation of Web Client.

And this Web Client talks to (exchanges messages with) a program whose proper
name is Web Server. So we have a Client-Server relationship.

Thus: Computer A runs an Operating System, which in turn runs dozens of programs,
one of which is a Web Server. The latter initializes itself & then simply
waits until someone using a Web Client sends a HTTP (Hyper-Text Transmission
Protocol-based) Request from their computer (computer B) to the Web Server's
computer. The Web Server responds by 'serving' up the requested web page as
its Response, & then becomes quiescent, waiting for another incoming HTTP request,
from computer B or from any other Web Client on any other computer.

Q 5: What happens when you leave off the URL?
A: Typing https://savage.net.au into your Web Client means there is no trailing /,
so your Web Client will fabricate the /. Then the Web Server will see you have not
typed in a file name, hence it will (most likely) automatically assume you meant
index.html for the file name, & it will fabricate that as well.

Thus https://savage.net.au becomes https://savage.net.au/index.html.
Of course some Web Servers are configured to behave differently, but the end result
is always going to be something similar to what I have explained.

For instance the Web Server might react to seeing https://savage.net.au/ by running a program
which creates a web page on-the-fly, rather than serving up a pre-existing file.
And the contents of this fabricated web page will be read from a database.

Q 6: And how do people make web pages pretty, fancy, complex etc?
A:By using more than HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language) in their web pages.
For instance, my home page contains this line (at line 14 within index.html):
        <link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' href='/assets/css/local/default.css'>
Note: CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets, so I can add 'style' to my web site.
Note: The raw HTML etc of index.html is visible if you right-click on any web page &
choose 'View Page Source' from the drop-down menu.

So for your Web Client to display my home page it must also download and process
https://savage.net.au/assets/css/local/default.css. Note: It does this automatically.
Using a similar inclusion mechanism, various other files containing almost anything
(eg images) can be included in web pages you view, & each such file is a security risk
in that criminals can include (in the downloaded file) programs which run automatically
on your computer as soon as the are received & processed by your Web Client.

Next article: A Complex Introduction to Using Computers (Part 2)