H

hack

A programming effort that accomplishes something resourceful or unconventional. Often used as a disparaging term for a quick-fix or for a poorly skilled technician.

hacker

A person who likes to tinker with computers and especially with computer software code. Some hackers create new software, but many hackers use programs such as ResEdit to make unauthorized changes to existing software. Largely an interchangeable term with cracker.

handler

A named set of AppleScript commands that you can execute by naming the handler elsewhere in the same script. Instead of repeating a set of commands several times in different parts of a script, you can make the set of commands a handler and invoke the handler each place you would have repeated the set of commands. This is also sometimes called a subroutine.

helper application

A program that handles a particular kind of media or other data encountered on the Internet.

help tag

A short description of the object under the mouse pointer in a Mac OS X application. The description appears in a small yellow box near the object. Many objects do not have help tags. The equivalent in Classic applications is Balloon Help.

HFS+ (Hierarchical File System Plus)

An extended file format designed for high-capacity hard drives.

Home Folder

The folder in which a user stores all personal files. The Mac OS X system also preserves settings for the user in the user’s Home Folder Library.

Home page

This term refers to the main page of a Web site, and it is also the page that a Web browser displays when you first open it.

hot spots

Places in a QuickTime VR panorama that you can click to go to another scene in the panorama or to a QuickTime VR object.

hub

A device on an Ethernet network that passes signals from any device connected to one of the hub’s RJ-45 ports to all other devices connected to the hub.

hyperlink

Underlined text or an image on a Web page that takes you to another page on the same or a different Web site when clicked.