1. A program interrupt, usually an interrupt caused by some
exceptional situation in the user program. In most cases, the
OS performs some action, then returns control to the program.
2. To cause a trap. "These instructions trap to the monitor."
Also used transitively to indicate the cause of the trap.
"The monitor traps all input/output instructions."
This term is associated with assembler programming
("interrupt" or "exception" is more common among HLL
programmers) and appears to be fading into history among
programmers as the role of assembler continues to shrink.
However, it is still important to computer architects and
systems hackers (see system, sense 1), who use it to
distinguish deterministically repeatable exceptions from
timing-dependent ones (such as I/O interrupts).
[Jargon File]
Nearby terms:
Transport Service Access Point « transputer « TRANS-USE « trap » trap door » trap-door function » trash
