The Jargon File

A Chronology...The Jargon FileComputer Dictionary
PROTOCOL
See DO PROTOCOL.
PSEUDOPRIME
n. A backgammon prime (six consecutive occupied points) with one point missing.
PTY
(pity) n. Pseudo TTY, a simulated TTY used to run a job under the supervision of another job.
PTYJOB (pity-job) n. The job being run on the PTY. Also a common general-purpose program for creating and using PTYs. This is DEC and SAIL terminology; the MIT equivalent is STY.
PUNT
[from the punch line of an old joke: "Drop back 15 yards and punt"] v. To give up, typically without any intention of retrying.
PUSH
[based on the stack operation that puts the current information on a stack, and the fact that procedure call addresses are saved on the stack] dialect: PUSHJ (push-jay), based on the PDP-10 procedure call instruction. v. To enter upon a digression, to save the current discussion for later.
QUES
(kwess)1. n. The question mark character ("?").
2. interj. What? Also QUES QUES? See WALL.
QUUX
[invented by Steele. Mythically, from the Latin semi-deponent verb QUUXO, QUUXARE, QUUXANDUM IRI; noun form variously QUUX (plural QUUCES, Anglicized to QUUXES) and QUUXU (genitive plural is QUUXUUM, four U's in seven letters).]1. Originally, a meta-word like FOO and FOOBAR. Invented by Guy Steele for precisely this purpose when he was young and naive and not yet interacting with the real computing community. Many people invent such words; this one seems simply to have been lucky enough to have spread a little.
2.interj. See FOO; however, denotes very little disgust, and is uttered mostly for the sake of the sound of it.
3. n. Refers to one of four people who went to Boston Latin School and eventually to MIT:
	THE GREAT QUUX:  Guy L. Steele Jr.
	THE LESSER QUUX:  David J. Littleboy
	THE MEDIOCRE QUUX:  Alan P. Swide
	THE MICRO QUUX:  Sam Lewis

(This taxonomy is said to be similarly applied to three Frankston brothers at MIT.) QUUX, without qualification, usually refers to The Great Quux, who is somewhat infamous for light verse and for the "Crunchly" cartoons.
4. QUUXY: adj. Of or pertaining to a QUUX.
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