[Fractdev] PEND_OP.p -- what does it do?

It gets set to a magic number during parsing and then is used in RecSortPrec, but I don't understand what 'p' is supposed to be doing. What is the meaning of the value assigned to it? -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>