Bootstrap
1. <operating system> (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> (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.
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