package preparation mode: A system-defined user mode that permits making a knowledge base proprietary.
paint mode: The default G2 drawing method.
palette: A menu that presents G2's default colors. Also, a workspace that contains each type of object that you can create in a knowledge base. You can create new objects by cloning from the palette.
permanent item: An item that continues to exist in the current KB after the KB is reset or restarted. When you save the current KB to a file, only the KB's permanent items are stored in the KB file. Items that you create interactively are permanent by default. Contrast with transient item.
permanent knowledge: The version of an item's knowledge that persists after you reset the current KB and that are saved when G2 stores the current KB in a KB file. Contrast with current knowledge.
permanent-membership list or array: A list or array whose elements remain elements when G2 is reset, provided that the list and elements are permanent, and are saved when the KB is saved, provided that the list is permanent and the elements are both permanent and uniquely identifiable. Permanent membership does not affect the permanence of the list or array itself, or of any items that are members of it.
permanent relation: A relation that persists when G2 is reset, provided that the related items are permanent, and is saved when the KB is saved, provided that the related items are permanent and uniquely identifiable..
platform: A combination of a brand of computer and a brand of operating system. G2 runs on several Unix, VMS, and Windows platforms.
polymorphism: In object-oriented programming, the technique whereby the same operation means different things, depending on the class of the operand to which it is applied.
port: The place on an item's icon where a connection attaches. You can provide names to ports, portnames, and refer to those names in connection expressions.
precedence (of configurations): G2's rules that determine the order in which it searches among conflicting configurations that pertain to the same item.
primary definition: When class definitions are merged, the definition that the secondary definition is merged into.
primary direct superior: The first class in a list of multiple direct superior classes given in a class definition.
procedure: A list of statements that G2 can execute, either in sequence or concurrently, on zero or more arguments supplied when the procedure is invoked.
procedure invocation: An item that represents the invocation of a procedure. If you set the
Class-of-procedure invocation attribute of a procedure to procedure-invocation, G2 creates a procedure invocation when the procedure starts and deletes the invocation when the procedure ends. profile data: Information about the duration and order in which G2 performed an identified set of executable items in the current KB.
proposition: A statement, such as
valve-is-broken or tank-is-overflowing, that is either true or false. proprietary item: An item or its object definition that resides upon a proprietary workspace.
proprietary KB: A knowledge base that contains proprietary workspaces that require authorization.
protocol: A specification of the format and content of information sent between one process and another, such as between G2 and Telewindows.