Flap
1. <storage, jargon> To unload a
DECtape (so it goes flap, flap, flap).
Old-time hackers at
MIT tell of the days when the disk was device 0 and microtapes were 1, 2, etc. and attempting to flap device 0 would instead start a motor banging inside a cabinet near the disk.
The term is used, by extension, for unloading any magnetic tape.
See also
macrotape.
Modern cartridge tapes no longer actually flap, but the usage has remained.
The term could well be re-applied to
DEC's TK50 cartridge tape drive, a spectacularly misengineered contraption which makes a loud flapping sound, almost like an old reel-type lawnmower, in one of its many tape-eating failure modes.
2. <networking> See
flapping router.
[
Jargon File]
