Bootstrapping (computer science)
In computer science, bootstrapping refers to a process that activates a more complex system on a simple system. One solution to the chicken and egg problem is to start a system by yourself. The term is often used for the startup process of a computer that requires a mechanism to start the software that is responsible for starting other software ( operating system ). Starting a software installation by first upgrading the installation program is called bootstrapping.
history
The term bootstrapping was first used in computer jargon in the early 1950s through the short story By His Bootstraps by Robert A. Heinlein , published in 1941. Similar to how the German Baron Münchhausen pulled himself out of a swamp by his own foreleg, according to an English phrase, you pull yourself over a fence using your bootstraps .
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Buchholz, Werner: The System Design of the IBM Type 701 Computer . In: Proceedings of the IRE . 41, No. 10, 1953, p. 1273.