P

packet: A unit of information transmitted as a whole from one device to another on a network.
paint cycle: The process of a control painting or erasing itself in response to messages received from the operating system.
palette: A collection of colors that can be displayed on an output device.
pane: One of the separate areas in a split window or a rectangular area of the status bar that can be used to display information.
parallel port: The input/output connector for a parallel interface device.
ParameterView: A tab in the Platform Workspace window that displays the files used in a platform. The files are arranged in expandable folders according to type.
parent window: A window that has one or more child windows.
parser: An application that breaks data into smaller chunks so that an application can act upon the information. For example, Mobile Channels use a Channel Definition Format parser to parse a channel.
pASP: See pocket Active Server Pages.
path: 1. In communications, a link between two nodes in a network. 2. A route through a structured collection of information, as in a database, an application, or files stored on disk. 3. In programming, the sequence of instructions that a computer carries out in executing a routine. 4. In file storage, the route followed by the operating system in finding, sorting, and retrieving files on a disk. 5. In graphics, an accumulation of line segments or curves to be filled or overwritten with text.
.pbp file: A Platform Builder project file that specifies how to build a particular project in a workspace. The file contains source file names and locations, build settings, and debug settings, including breakpoints and watches.
.pbw file: A Platform Builder workspace file that contains information about the workspace, such as a list of all the platforms or projects.
PC Card storage device: A trademark of the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) that is used to describe add-in cards that conform to the PCMCIA specification. A PC Card storage device is a removable device approximately the same size as a credit card that is designed to plug into a PCMCIA slot. Type I cards are primarily used as memory-related peripherals. Type II cards accommodate devices such as modem, fax, and network cards. Type III cards accommodate devices that require more space, such as wireless communications devices and rotating storage media, including hard disks. Flash card is a general term for a PC Card storage device.
.pch file: A precompiled header file. A file containing compiled code for a portion of a project. Subsequent builds combine this file with the uncompiled code, thus shortening the overall compile time.
PCT: See program comprehension tool.
.pdb file: A file used by the Platform Builder build tools to store information about a user's application. A .pdb file speeds linking during the debugging phase of development by keeping the debugging information separate from the object files.
PDD: See platform-dependent driver.
.pdp file: See project.
PE file format: See portable executable (PE) file format.
peer: Any of the devices on a layered communications network that operate on the same protocol level.
pen: A drawing tool used to draw lines and curves.
perigee: The point within the orbit of a satellite where the satellite is closest to the earth.
persistent object: A COM object that adheres to standards through which clients can request objects to be initialized, loaded, and saved to and from a data store, such as a flat file, structured storage, or memory.
personal information manager (PIM): An application that usually includes an address book and organizes unrelated information, such as notes, appointments, and names, in a useful way.
phone book: Entries in the Remote Access Service (RAS) phone book contain the information necessary to establish a RAS connection. Unlike Windows NT, which keeps the phone book entries in a file, Windows CE stores these entries in the registry.
physical font: The font that is stored on a device or in an operating system. See also font mapping.
PIM: See personal information manager.
ping: A protocol for testing whether a particular computer is connected to the Internet by sending a packet to its Internet Protocol (IP) address and waiting for a response.
plaintext: Data that has not been encrypted.
platform: 1. A specific implementation of a Windows CE operating system on a target device. A platform consists of an operating system image, an OEM adaptation layer, and device drivers. 2. In everyday usage, the type of computer or operating system being used.
Platform Builder: See Microsoft Windows CE Platform Builder.
platform-dependent driver (PDD): The platform-specific layer of a native device driver supplied by an original equipment manufacturer. See also native device driver.
platform directory: The directory containing the code that implements a hardware development platform.
Platform Manager: A communications technology that connects a Windows CE SDK running on a workstation with a target device.
Platform view: A Platform Builder integrated development environment (IDE) setting that displays the menu items, toolbars, and windows for building platforms. See also project view.
Platform Wizard: A series of interactive dialog boxes that enable you to select operating system features and a board support package for your platform. After you have finalized your choices, Platform Wizard automatically creates the necessary files and directories to support your platform.
pocket Active Server Pages (pASP): A scaled-down version of the Active Server Pages optimized for server-side Mobile Channels scripting.
Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP): An advanced serial packet protocol commonly used for dial-up connections.
POP3: See Post Office Protocol 3.
pop-up menu: A menu that appears on the screen when a user selects a certain item. Pop-up menus can appear anywhere on the screen, and they generally disappear when the user selects an item in the menu.
pop-up window: 1. A special type of overlapped window typically used for dialog boxes, message boxes, and other temporary windows that appear outside an application's main window. 2. In Platform Builder, an immovable, nonsizable window that remains on the screen until the user closes it. Pop-up windows typically contain definitions of terms or other parenthetical information.
portable executable (PE) file format: The Microsoft implementation of the Common Object File Format. See Common Object File Format.
Portable Operating System Interface for Computer Environments (POSIX): An IEEE standard that defines the open systems environment standards for system interfaces, shells, tools, testing, verification, real-time processing, security, system administration, networking, and transaction processing. The standard is based on UNIX system services, but it allows implementation on other operating systems.
position index: An identifier associated with each address card in the Contacts database. The position index indicates the address card's position relative to the other address cards in the database. A position index is distinct from an object identifier.
POSIX: See Portable Operating System Interface for Computer Environments.
Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3): A standard protocol for transferring mail messages on demand from a mail server.
PPP: See Point-to-Point Protocol.
predefined control: A control belonging to a window class supplied by Windows CE.
pre-emphasis: Increases the magnitude of the higher signal frequencies on an audio channel, improving the signal-to-noise ratio. Compare de-emphasis.
preemptive multitasking: A form of multitasking in which the operating system periodically interrupts the execution of an application and passes control of the system to another waiting application. Preemptive multitasking prevents any one application from monopolizing the system.
prerecorded speech template: A recording of a speech command in your application that is used for short voice Help.
principal: An entity recognized by a security system. A principal can be a human user or an autonomous process.
priority class: A range of thread priority levels. Whereas Win32 utilizes four priority classes with seven base priority levels per class, Windows CE has only eight base priority levels. Hence, for processes running under Windows CE, preemption is based solely on the thread's priority.
priority inheritance: A process by which a thread that is blocking a shared resource needed by a higher-priority thread inherits the priority of that higher-priority thread in order to free the resource for use by the higher-priority thread, thus preventing priority inversion.
priority inversion: Priority inversion is a situation in which higher-priority thread A spawns lower-priority thread B to access a shared resource that is already in use by lower-priority thread C with greater priority than thread B, blocking higher-priority thread A. This situation can be averted by a process of priority inheritance.
process: A running application that consists of a private virtual address space, code, data, and other operating-system resources, such as files, pipes, and synchronization objects that are visible to the process. A process also contains one or more threads that run in the context of the process.
process logging: A debugging technique that monitors the processes and threads on a target device.
profiler: A diagnostic tool for analyzing the run-time behavior of programs.
program button: On a device, a navigation control that is pressed to launch an application. The program button can also be programmed for additional features, such as creating a new document in an application.
program comprehension tool (PCT): A software engineering tool that facilitates the process of understanding the structure and/or functionality of computer applications.
program information file (.pif): A file that provides information to Windows CE about how best to run MS-DOS applications. When you start an MS-DOS application, Windows CE looks for a .pif file to use with the application. A .pif file contains such items as the name of the file, a startup directory, and multitasking options.
program memory: Program memory is used for stack and heap storage for both system and non-system applications. Non-system applications are taken from storage memory, uncompressed, and loaded into program memory for execution.
progress bar: A common control that indicates the progress of a lengthy operation by displaying a colored bar inside a horizontal rectangle. The length of the bar in relation to the length of the rectangle corresponds to the percentage of the operation that is complete.
project: A file that keeps track of all programs, forms, menus, libraries, reports, labels, queries, and other types of files that are needed to create an application. Platform Builder projects have a .pdp file extension.
project configuration: The settings that are used by Platform Builder to build a project. They determine the characteristics of the final output file for a project.
Project view: A Platform Builder integrated development environment (IDE) setting that displays the menu items, toolbars, and windows for building projects. See also platform view.
property: With respect to the database application programming interface, a property refers to a data item that consists of a property identifier, data type, and value. Windows CE supports several data types such as integer, string, time, and binary large object (BLOB).
property page: A dialog box that controls the appearance and the behavior of an object, such as a file or resource. A property page's appearance differs according to its purpose.
property sheet: A type of dialog box that lists the attributes or settings of an object, such as a file, application, or hardware device. A property sheet presents the user with a tabbed, index card–like selection of property pages, each of which features standard dialog box–style controls for customizing parameters.
protected server library (PSL): A process running on the system that has registered an API set that can be called from other processes through a kernel trap.
protocol stack: Collectively, the layers of communications software in the ISO/OSI model.
pseudotarget: A label used in place of a file name in the dependency line of a makefile file.
PSL: See protected server library.
public-key encryption: An asymmetric scheme that uses a pair of keys for encryption: The public key encrypts data, and a corresponding secret key decrypts it. For digital signatures, the process is reversed: The sender uses the secret key to create a unique electronic number that can be read by anyone possessing the corresponding public key, which verifies that the message is truly from the sender.
pull-down menu: A menu containing commands that are accessed from a command or menu bar. A pull-down menu usually provides access to a small number of items with content that rarely changes.
Pulse Code Modulation (PCM): An uncompressed audio format in which each sample represents the amplitude of the signal at the time of sampling.
push button: A small rectangular control that a user can turn on or off. A push button, also known as a command button, has a raised appearance in its default off state and a depressed appearance when it is turned on.
Push Pin button: A button on a property page that has the appearance of a push pin. Pressing or releasing the button determines whether a property page remains visible and on top, or disappears when the focus changes.