Bootstrapping

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

Overview

As an allusion to lifting oneself up by one's own bootstraps, the term bootstrapping means using a special process to perform a task that one would be unable to do in general. In particular, it is used in the following contexts:

• Bootstrapping (computing), starting a computer or building complex tools after building simple tools that allow for the creation of the more complex tools. Shortened to booting to describe the process of starting up a computer.
  • Bootstrapping (compilers), writing a compiler for a computer language using the language itself.
• Bootstrapping (linguistics), a theory of language acquisition.
• Bootstrapping (physics), axiomatic sets.
• Bootstrapping (statistics), a modern, computer-intensive, general purpose approach to statistical inference.
• Bootstrapping (law), a rule preventing hearsay in conspiracy cases.
• Bootstrapping (electronics), a form of positive feedback in analog circuit design.
• Bootstrapping (business), to start a business without external help (capital).
• Bootstrapping (finance), the method to create the spot rate curve.
• Bootstrapping (corporate finance), when a financial sponsor gains control of a majority of a target company's equity through the use of borrowed money or debt.
• Bootstrapping (science fiction), giving advanced technology to a race less technologically advanced than one's own.
• Operation Bootstrap ("Operación Manos a la Obra") is the name given to the ambitious projects which industrialized Puerto Rico in the mid-20th century.
• William "Bootstrap Bill" Turner, a character in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series.

See also

• Hermeneutic circle