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. See flapping router .
[ Jargon File ]
(1997-06-17)