zap

ZAP

(language)

A language for expressing program transformations.

["A System for Assisting Program Transformation", M.S. Feather, ACM TOPLAS 4(1):1-20, Jan 1982].

ZAP

(2)

Zero and Add Packed.

zap

(jargon)

1. To modify, usually to correct; especially used when the action is performed with a debugger or binary patching tool. Also implies surgical precision. "Zap the debug level to 6 and run it again."

In the IBM mainframe world, binary patches are applied to programs or to the operating system with a program called "superzap", whose file name is "IMASPZAP" (possibly contrived from I M A SuPerZAP).

See also Zero and Add Packed.

2. To fry a chip with static electricity. "Uh oh - I think that lightning strike may have zapped the disk controller."

zap

A command that typically deletes the data within a file but leaves the file structure intact so that new data can be entered. See wipe.