HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is an extension of HTTP. It is used for secure communication over a computer network and is widely used on the Internet, especially for e-commerce and online banking.

The development of the graphical user interface (GUI) and the computer mouse can be largely attributed to the pioneering research done at Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center), notably with their Alto computer in the 1970s. However, the Alto was primarily a research machine and not a commercially sold product. It was Apple Inc. that successfully brought mouse-driven GUI personal computers to the mass market. The Apple Lisa, released in 1983, was Apple's first personal computer to feature a GUI and a mouse, though its high price limited its commercial success. The subsequent Apple Macintosh, launched in 1984, was significantly more affordable and widely advertised, making it the first truly commercially successful computer to popularize the GUI paradigm for personal computing. IBM PCs, while commercially successful, initially relied on a command-line interface (DOS). Microsoft Windows 1.0, released in 1985, was a graphical shell for MS-DOS and came after Apple's successful GUI implementations.

A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a reference to a web resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. It is colloquially known as a web address.

The Pascaline, invented by Blaise Pascal in the 1640s, represented a significant advancement in mechanical computation. Its ingenious design, based on a system of interconnected gears and dials, was optimized for the direct and efficient execution of addition and subtraction. While more complex operations like multiplication and division could be performed indirectly through repeated addition or subtraction respectively, they were not automated functions of the machine itself. These operations required considerable manual input and were time-consuming, indicating they were not a primary design objective. The Pascaline lacked the inherent mechanisms for automated multiplication, division, square roots, or exponents, which became features of later, more sophisticated calculators. Its main purpose and innovation lay in simplifying and accelerating basic addition and subtraction, which was particularly useful for tasks such as accounting and tax computations.

First-generation computers utilized magnetic drums for memory. These were rotating metal cylinders coated with a magnetic material, onto which data and programs could be stored and retrieved.

In his 1936 paper, Alan Turing introduced the concept of the Turing Machine, an abstract device that could simulate the logic of any computer algorithm. It remains a central object of study in the theory of computation.

Fifth-generation computers, a concept that emerged in the 1980s, were envisioned to go beyond simple numerical calculations. Their fundamental objective was the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), including capabilities such as natural language understanding, reasoning, learning, and self-organization. This initiative aimed to create 'thinking' computers, distinguishing them sharply from earlier generations that focused primarily on hardware improvements like vacuum tubes (first generation), transistors (second generation), and integrated circuits (third and fourth generations).

Ted Nelson coined the terms "hypertext" and "hypermedia" in 1963 and has been working on his Project Xanadu, an alternative hypertext system, since the 1960s.

COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) is structured to resemble natural English for business applications.

COBOL, an acronym for Common Business-Oriented Language, was specifically designed in 1959 to handle commercial and administrative data processing tasks. Its design emphasized readability and ease of use for non-technical business professionals, making it highly suitable for applications like payroll, inventory management, and financial reporting. It quickly became (and in some legacy systems, still is) a dominant language for business applications, particularly on mainframe computers.