P
P2P: peer-to-peer
P3P: Platform for Privacy Preferences; a W3C standard
p: not italicized when used to indicate probability
p: SI prefix for one trillionth or pico (3 ps)
p.: abbreviation for page when referred to in text; use pp. for multiple pages
PABX: private automated branch exchange, a telephone system
packet: a packed block of data for data transmission
PAD: packet assembler/disassembler
PADL: Part and Assembly Description Language, developed at the University of Rochester
pairwise
PAL: phase alternating line—a European video standard; also the acronym for Paradox Application Language
Palm Pilot
PAN: personal area netowrk
PAR: project authorization request
parameterization: not parametrization; to split at the end of a line, note that parameter and like words are split after the m, for example: param-eter; but parametric is split before the m: para-metric; automatic hyphenation programs tend to split parameter incorrectly
PARC: Palo Alto Research Center
parseable (alternate spelling: parsable)
PASC: Portable Applications Standards Committee
Pascal: a programming language (named for mathematician Blaise Pascal)
parent: one of several family words used to describe relationships among nodes in databases. The terms are legitimate; don’t try to edit them out.
pass/fail
pathname
Pbps: petabits per second
p-channel (adj)
*PC: personal computer; see also IBM PC
PC-DOS: IBM’s version of MS-DOS; use only when discussing applications that will run on PC-DOS but not on MS-DOS (these are largely IBM programs and there are very few of them)
PCB: printed circuit board; plural form is PCBs
*PCI: peripheral component interconnect
PCM: pulse-code modulation
PCMCIA: Personal Computer Memory Card International Assoc.
*PDA: personal digital assistant
*PDF: portable document format
PDL: page-description language
PDP-11, PDP-11/03, PDP-11/70: Digital Equipment Corporation computers
Pentium 5 (V): Pentium
Pentium 6 (VI): Pentium II
percent: spell it out; don’t use %; don’t use without a number as a replacement for “percentage”
*Perl: Practical Extraction and Report Language
PET: positron emission tomography
peta: a thousand trillion (petaflops = a thousand teraflops)
petabit
Petri net (n): a graphical model of information flow, showing static and dynamic properties of a system; named after Karl Petri, a German mathematician
pF: picofarad; a unit of capacitance equal to one-trillionth of a farad
PhD: no periods
PHIGS: Programmer’s Hierarchical Interactive Graphics System, an ANSI and ISO standard
photo-: no hyphen when used as a modifier (photomultiplier)
photomicrograph: magnified picture of small things; do not confuse with microphotograph
*PHP: recursive acronym for Hypertext Preprocessor, a scripting language
pico- (prefix): one trillionth, no hyphen (picogram, picosecond)
Pict: an image-file format (generally produced by Apple Macintosh programs); not the same as a .PIC graphics file, which is produced primarily by MS-DOS spreadsheet programs
PID: proportional, integral, derivative
PIM: peripheral interface module; Protocol-Independent Multicast (SM = Sparse Mode; SSM = Single-Source Multicast)
*PIN: personal identification number
pinout
Pisces: parallel implementation of scientific computing environments
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center: one of the four US national supercomputer centers funded by the National Science Foundation
pixel (n): derived from pix (short for “picture”) and element, it is the smallest resolvable dot in an image display
PKI: public-key infrastructure
PL/I: a programming language developed by IBM (roman “I” per textbook by developer)
PLA: programmable logic array
plaintext: the intelligible form of an encrypted text, for example, plaintext contains routing information; use plain text when referring to unencrypted text, for example, user entries are in italics, the computer’s response is in plain text
PlayStation
plug-in (n, adj)
plurals: The general rule is to add an “s”: 1980s (year), 40s (temperature), HP-1000s (name), Apple IIs (name); see CMS 7.15 and 9.58
*p.m.: post meridiem, meaning “after noon” (also includes 12:00 noon); see also a.m.
PMU: processor management unit
PMOS: p-channel MOS
PNG: portable network graphics
PnP: plug and play
PO: post office; in addresses, use no periods (PO Box 33)
PocketPC: brand name; pocket PC: generic term
podcast
policymaker
*POP3: Post Office Protocol, version 3
popup
Posix: IEEE standard for a portable operating systems interface. The initial standard deals with portability standards for C programs on computers running Unix.
post-: no hyphen unless root is based on a proper noun (postprocessing, post-Victorian)
PostScript: a graphics- and font-description language from Adobe Systems, used primarily in desktop publishing
POTS: plain old telephone system
power down (v)
PowerPC
pp.: abbreviation for multiple pages; single-page references are denoted by p.
PPP: Point-to-Point Protocol
pre-: no hyphen unless root is based on a proper noun (preeminent, pre-Columbian)
prefixes: see CMS 7.85, Table 4
Prentice Hall
prepositions in titles: see the Capitalization section
president: capitalize only when referring to the President of a country
prettyprinting: the process of reformatting source code so that it has a consistent layout
price/performance ratio: written with a slash (“/”), not a hyphen
printed circuit board: board on which most components are connected by printed circuitry; PCB, PCBs are acceptable on second reference
printout
Prism: parallel reduced-instruction-set multiprocessing (Apollo architecture)
programs and tokens: see Program Code section
Prolog: a logic programming language
PROM: programmable read-only memory
pronouns: he, she—try to use a gender-neutral alternative, for example, plural, “he or she,” or “the user”
ps: picosecond
PS/2: Personal System/2, an IBM PC family based on Intel 80286/80386 processors; unlike the IBM PC AT, it has a proprietary Micro Channel bus; it can run OS/2 or MS-DOS
PSB: parallel system bus
pseudo- (prefix): no hyphen when used to form a compound (pseudorandom); word processors might hyphenate after pseu, but be careful to hyphenate after pseudo
PSN: packet-switch node
PSTN: public switched telephone network
pulsewidth: not the same as pulse duration
PUMA: programmable universal mechanical assembly
PWB: printed wiring board
Q
Q-bus: from Digital Equipment Corp.
QCD: quantum chromodynamics
QED: quantum electrodynamics; also quod erat demonstrandum, “which was to be demonstrated,” commonly used at the end of mathematical proofs. However, in Computer Society Transactions, this is usually replaced with a small box, known as the “tombstone” or “halmos symbol.”
QoS: (n) quality of service; (adj) quality-of-service
quadword: 48-bit or 32-bit piece of data
quasi, quasi-: hyphenated for adjectives (quasi-parenthetical), open for nouns, except for some established closed compounds (quasi system, quasiparticle)
Quel: a relational calculus language
quicksort routine: memory sorting
QuickTime: the Macintosh movie/animation application
quotation marks: Use around direct quotations, chapter titles, episode titles, words when referred to as words, and letters when referred to as letters. In an article that begins with a quotation, do not use the opening quotation marks with the initial drop cap (an oversized, boldface capital at the beginning of a paragraph), but close the quotation with quotation marks. Block quotations do not take quotation marks. For more information, see CMS 13.20-13.22 and 13.37-13.41.
qwerty: the standard typewriter or computer keyboard, with the letters q, w, e, r, t, and y at the upper left; no initial capital
R
R8000: a 64-bit RISC microprocessor introduced in 1994 by MIPS Technologies Inc. It was formerly code-named TFP. Other processors made by MIPS include the R4400 and R4600.
rackmount (adj): Computer equipment that is standardized to 19 inches in width
*RAID: redundant array of independent disks (originally “inexpensive” disks)
*RAM: random-access memory
RAND Corp.: official format for the name of the nonprofit research corporation
*R&D: research and development
raster (n): the scan lines that form the graphic output on a computer display; also referred to as bitmap
raster-op: raster operation
ray tracer (n): an algorithm for drawing computer-generated shaded or highlighted images (also, a ray-tracing algorithm)
RC: resistance-capacitance
RCS: radar cross-section
RDBMS (plural—RDBMSs): relational database management system
RDF: Resource Description Framework
RDFS: RDF Schema
re-: no hyphenation in most cases; see Webster’s for individual examples; watch context for words such as resign (to quit a job) or re-sign (to sign again)
readback: a way to ensure the accuracy of output by comparing the transmitted data with the original data
readout (n): a visual display of data stored electronically; read out (v)
read/write
RealNetworks
real time (n), real-time (adj): the actual time during which something takes place
reengineer: to examine and alter a subject system to reconstitute it into a new form and to subsequently implement the new form; contrast with reverse engineering
registered trademark (®): see trademark
register-transfer (adj): as in register-transfer level
relational database: a database with data organized into tables
REST: Representational State Transfer, an XML protocol
reverse engineering (n), reverse-engineering (adj), reverse-engineer (v): to deduce the plans of something already built as opposed to reengineering an entity
Rexx: IBM’s Restructured Extended Executor
*RF: radio frequency
*RFID: radio frequency identification
RFP: request for proposal; spell out on first use
RGB: red, green, blue; an additive color model used in TV and raster displays
RISC: reduced-instruction-set computing or computer
RMI: remote method invocation; see Java RMI
RMS: root-mean-square, the square root of the mean of the squares of a group of numbers; a kind of average widely used in statistics; lowercase and hyphenated by convention. Set in roman when used as a subscript in mathematical copy: Vrms.
road map
Rock algorithm
ROI: return on investment
*ROM: read-only memory (nonerasable)
roman: a type style that is not italic or boldface; no initial capital when referring to the type style
round-off error
royalty-free images
*RPC: Remote Procedure Call; a protocol
RPF: reverse path forwarding
rpm: revolutions per minute
RS-232, RS-232C: hardware interface protocols
RS/6000: RISC System/6000, a workstation from IBM; comes in a variety of models, such as the IBM RS/6000 Model 350
RSCS: Remote Spooling and Communications Subsystem, the spooling protocol used in Vnet and Bitnet
*RSS: Really Simple Syndication; Rich Site Summary; RDF Site Summary—a method of describing Web content that is available for distribution or syndication from an online publisher to Web users
RSVP: Resource Reservation Protocol
RT: register transfer
RT-11: operating system for Digital Equipment Corp. PDP-11 computers
RTCP: Real-Time Control Protocol
RTL: register transfer level; also Register Transfer Language
RTP: Real-Time Transfer Protocol
RTSP: Real-Time Streaming Protocol
RTTP: Real-Time Transport Protocol; also seen as RTP
rubberbanding: a computer graphics technique that lets lines in an image be stretched and moved as if elastic
rule set
runtime (n) (adj): the measure of the time expended to execute a program
runtime version: program code ready for execution; a special software release encompassing some, but not all, capabilities of the complete software package
* OK to use acronym or abbreviation on first reference.
