VDict mobile



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".
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.
(27 November 1995)