Meaning of abbreviated terms

[Ross Wilson]

The "plist" abbreviation goes back to at least 1958 as it was used in 
the Lisp implementation [0].  And it may even predate Lisp.  I'm very 
sure that what actually went into a plist has often changed over the 
years, but the name persists.

Lisp also used "association lists" [1] which were a key/value data 
structure, usually called an "alist" or "a-list".

Ross

[0] https://www.cs.cmu.edu/Groups/AI/html/cltl/clm/node108.html
[1] https://www.cs.cmu.edu/Groups/AI/html/cltl/clm/node153.html


On 12/5/2561 BE 13:45, Bob Martin wrote:
> in 793617 20180511 072806 Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:
>> On Fri, 11 May 2018 07:20:36 +0000, Bob Martin wrote:
>>
>>> in 793605 20180511 044309 T Berger <brgrt2 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> On Saturday, May 5, 2018 at 6:45:46 PM UTC-4, MRAB wrote:
>>>>> On 2018-05-05 17:57, T Berger wrote:
>>>>>> What does the "p" in "plist" stand for? Is there a python glossary
>>>>>> that spells out the meanings of abbreviated terms?
>>>>>>
>>>>> "plist" is "property list". It's listed in the Python documentation.
>>>> Thanks for the answer. Missed it till now.
>>> In IBM-speak it was parameter list.
>>
>>
>> But that's not where plists came from, was it? As I understand it, the
>> plist data format was invented by Apple, and they called it a property
>> list.
> How old is Apple?
> I was using plist for parameter list in OS/360 in 1965.