definitions

AJAX - A programming technique in which a front-end scripting language (usually Javascript) communicates constantly with a back-end scripting language (such as PHP) to change a web page without that page needing to be refreshed. The strictest use of this term requires that the data exchanges happening between front end and backend take place in XML.

ASP - A server-side scripting environment (similar to PHP) developed by Microsoft. The chief advantage of this environment was that it supported a scripting language called Visual Basic Script (VBScript), which wasn't all that different from the BASICs of the early personal computer revolution. I found that I could easily program in ASP using only the knowledge I'd acquired on a Commodore VIC-20 back in 1983.

HTML - A markup language for displaying pages on the World Wide Web. This language is based on XML but has a limited vocabulary of tags and is less strict, not demanding (for example) the careful balancing of tags.

Javascript - An interpreted programming language that is executed by the user's (client's) browser on the web. Javascript's speed is determined by the speed of the computer on which it is viewed, not by the speed of the server (unless the Javascript program is making repeated calls to the server).

MySQL - A database environment, which includes a query language mostly in keeping with the Platonic SQL. Unlike Microsoft SQL, there are no stored procedures (at least not in any versions widely available).

PHP - An interpeted programming language that is executed on the server. The results of PHP code is indistinguishable from static HTML, although for any given URL it can change depending on whatever circumstances the programmer allows for.

static - Unchanging unless modified by direct human intervention. Static HTML pages, for example, do not reflect information in databases.

XML - A generic markup system similar to HTML where bracketed tags (those taking the form <TAG></TAG>) can be anything at all and in-tag parameters (taking the form parameter="value") can be anything, just so long as the tags are properly nested and balanced.