What are perms?

I am new and I see perm and perms being mentioned everywhere (here, for example: http://www.smartdxl.com/content/?p=475); however, I'm failing to find the definition.  I've looked through DXL documentation and guide, but nothing gives the definition... they all just keep on saying perm and perms.  Now, it looks as if that's another way of saying a function in DXL, but I'm note entirely sure.  Could someone clarify this for me, please?

Re: What are perms?
Mike.Scharnow - Tue Dec 29 05:33:14 EST 2015

The question has been posed before in https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/forums/html/topic?id=77777777-0000-0000-0000-000014580797

Re: What are perms?
bkboggy - Tue Dec 29 12:52:53 EST 2015

And it was only answered today by you, so there was no information previously.

Re: What are perms?
Mike.Scharnow - Tue Dec 29 18:48:58 EST 2015

Well, the definition of "Perm" as "permutation matrix" was there before today :)
And I think the answer that I posted should better reside close to the original question, that's why I created a reference to the other thread instead of answering here in this thread... BTW I'm sure there are people out there who are better in explaining when and why the term "perm" was chosen. let's see if someone else answers here or there...

Re: What are perms?
bkboggy - Tue Dec 29 20:26:29 EST 2015

Sounds good.  Thank you.