| Noun | 1. | bootstrap - a strap that is looped and sewn to the top of a boot for pulling it on |
| Verb | 1. | bootstrap - help oneself, often through improvised means |
| 1. | (operating system) | bootstrap - (From "to pull oneself up by one's
bootstraps") To load and initialise the operating system on
a computer. Normally abbreviated to "boot". See bootstrap loader. | |
| 2. | (compiler) | bootstrap - (From "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps")
to use a compiler to compile itself. The usual process is to write an interpreter for a language, L, in an existing language, M. The compiler is then written in L and the interpreter is used to run it. This produces an executable for compiling programs in L from the source of the compiler in L. This technique is often used to verify the correctness of a compiler. It was first used in the LISP community. See also my favourite toy language. |