Bootstrap (verb)

To bootstrap something -- typically a computer -- is to activate it.

Description

From "to pull oneself over a fence by one's bootstraps", and similar early 19th-century American phrases.

Typically expressed as an amusing story in which the protagonist performs an impossible task.

I want to get over the fence, but I don't want to jump that high. I'll reach down, grab the straps of my boots, and pull myself up in the air, just a little bit. That way, when I make my jump, I'll be that much higher off the ground when I start.

But now that I've pulled myself up a little bit, why not pull a little harder, get a little more height? So I do.

And by repeating this process, I proceed over the fence.

Computer bootstrapping

By analogy, a computer (hardware, no software) stands on one side of the fence, and needs to get to the other side of the fence (hardware running software).

The fence represents the effort required to load an operating system into the hardware.

The computer needs to "pull itself up a little bit" (start running some software) so that initial piece of software can load more software (jump higher), and so on, until a complete operating system is installed.

Parable

Unlike the early 19th-century American bootstrappers, it is, apparently, not possible for us to literally pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.

It seems we are now able to bootstrap ourselves over fences in a metaphorical sense alone.

Perhaps those hardy pioneers had more upper-body strength. Or lighter, more gracious feet.

Maybe urbanization and modern life have taken their toll of the land itself.

The bootstrapping principle may used up, played out, gone.

I don't know.

All I know is that none of my boots have straps, so there is no point in trying.

Good news

Fortunately, computers actually do start up and run, and bootstrapping computers is just a metaphor.

Last word

Maybe it's for the best that early 19th-century Americans didn't have computers.

What if ours didn't bootstrap today?

See also

• Bootstrap (framework)

External links

• Bootstrapping @ Wikipedia