poke (software)

Poke, in software terms, typically refers to a programming technique or command used to access or modify a specific part of memory directly. It allows a programmer to "poke" a value into a certain memory address, which can be useful for debugging or low-level hardware interactions. This concept originated from early programming languages like BASIC, where commands like POKE were used to change data in memory. While powerful, direct memory manipulation is generally more complex and risky in modern software development, often replaced by safer, higher-level programming abstractions.