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q

  • prefix An abbreviation for 'quick' placed in front of many commands to give them either lesser functionality or a more concise (but less English) output form. For example, 'ql' means 'quick look', and 'qs' means 'quick score'. Sometimes, the q merely implies "quicker to type than", so 'qw' is simply a synonym of 'who' (because 'w' is already taken as an abbreviation for 'west'); 'qq' is short for 'quit' ('q' on its own is too easy to type when you're aiming for 'w'!). On occasions, convoluted combinations of such abbreviated prefixes are available to cater for experimental uses or esoteric preferences; for example, 'sqw' (for 'superquickwho') does a 'who' without prefixes/postfixes on persona names, for the benefit of 40-column speccy owners. See l (sense 2), s (sense 2).

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23rd September 1999: q.htm