percent-S /per-sent' es'/ n.
[From the code in C's printf(3) library function
used to insert an arbitrary string argument] An unspecified
person or object. "I was just talking to some percent-s in
administration." Compare random.
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perf /perf/ n.
Syn. chad (sense 1). The term
`perfory' /per'f*-ree/ is also heard. The term perf may also refer to the perforations
themselves, rather than the chad they produce when torn
(philatelists use it this way).
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perfect programmer syndrome n.
Arrogance; the egotistical conviction that one is above normal
human error. Most frequently found among programmers of some
native ability but relatively little experience (especially new
graduates; their perceptions may be distorted by a history of
excellent performance at solving toy
problems). "Of course my program is correct, there is no
need to test it." "Yes, I can see there may be a problem here,
but I'll never type rm -r / while in root mode."
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Perl /perl/ n.
[Practical Extraction and Report Language, a.k.a. Pathologically
Eclectic Rubbish Lister] An interpreted language developed by Larry
Wall (author of patch(1) and rn(1)) and distributed over Usenet.
Superficially resembles awk, but is much hairier, including many
facilities reminiscent of sed(1) and shells and a comprehensive Unix
system-call interface. Unix sysadmins, who are almost always
incorrigible hackers, generally consider it one of the languages of
choice, and it is by far the most widely used tool for making `live'
web pages via CGI. Perl has been described, in a parody of a famous
remark about lex(1), as the "Swiss-Army chainsaw" of Unix programming.
Though Perl is very useful, it would be a stretch to describe it as
pretty or elegant; people who like clean, spare design generally prefer
Python. See also Camel Book, TMTOWTDI.
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person of no account n.
[University of California at Santa Cruz] Used when referring
to a person with no network
address, frequently to forestall confusion. Most often as
part of an introduction: "This is Bill, a person of no account,
but he used to be bill@random.com". Compare return from the dead.
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pessimal /pes'im-l/ adj.
[Latin-based antonym for `optimal'] Maximally bad. "This is a
pessimal situation." Also `pessimize' vt. To make as bad as
possible. These words are the obvious Latin-based antonyms for
`optimal' and `optimize', but for some reason they do not appear
in most English dictionaries, although `pessimize' is listed in
the OED.
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pessimizing compiler /pes'*-mi:z`ing k*m-pi:l'r/ n.
A compiler that produces object [antonym of techspeak
`optimizing compiler'] code that is worse than the
straightforward or obvious hand translation. The implication is
that the compiler is actually trying to optimize the program, but
through excessive cleverness is doing the opposite. A few
pessimizing compilers have been written on purpose, however, as
pranks or burlesques.