| 释义 |
boot-strap, bootstrap, n.|ˈbuːtstræp|
[f. boot n.3 + strap n.]
1. A strap sewn on to a boot to help in pulling it on or looped round a boot to hold down the skirt of a lady's riding habit; a boot-lace.
1891R. P. Chope Dial. of Hartland, Devonsh. 29 Boot-strap, a boot-lace. 1908Daily Chron. 11 Sept. 7/5 He put her up, adjusted boot-strap and skirt.
2. Colloq. phr. to pull (lift, raise, etc.) oneself (up) by one's (own) boot-straps: to raise or better oneself by one's own unaided efforts; hence allusively.
1922Joyce Ulysses 630 There were..others who had forced their way to the top from the lowest rung by the aid of their bootstraps. 1936Kunitz & Haycraft Brit. Authors 19th Cent. 213/1 A poet who lifted himself by his own boot-straps from an obscure versifier to the ranks of real poetry. 1937V. D. Scudder On Journey iii. ii. 306 Humanity could never pull itself up by its own bootstraps. 1960D. Lessing In Pursuit of English 35, I had no money, I could have got some by writing to my family, of course, but it had to be the bootstraps or nothing. 1962Listener 23 Aug. 271/2 A rather naïve faith in humanity's ability to pull itself up by its own bootstraps.
3. Computing. The procedure of using a fixed sequence of instructions to initiate the loading of further instructions and ultimately of a complete program (esp. the operating system); the initial fixed sequence of instructions used for this. Freq. attrib.
1953Proc. IRE XLI. 1273/1 A technique sometimes called the ‘bootstrap technique’{ddd}Pushing the load button..causes one full word to be loaded into a memory address previously set up..on the operator's panel, after which the program control is directed to that memory address and the computer starts automatically. 1962Gloss. Terms Automatic Data Processing (B.S.I.) 42 Bootstrap, 1. A form of program input in which simple preset computer operations are used to read in initial instructions which in turn cause further instructions to be read until the complete program is assembled. 2. The process of using parts of a compiler to construct the remainder of the same compiler. 1965K. Nicol Elem. Programming iii. 11 When the computer was constructed, a small set of basic instructions were permanently wired into the store and the control unit is made to obey the first of these by pressing an external button. They constitute a small program (known as the ‘bootstrap’ or ‘initial input’ routine) whose task is to read characters from the paper tape reader and place them in successive storage locations. 1975R. H. Eckhouse Minicomputer Systems vi. 167 The software bootstrap for the PDP–11 is a sequence of instructions for loading user programs{ddd}The bootstrap loader source program is shown in Fig. 6–4. 1980C. S. French Computer Sci. xxiv. 183 Bootstraps or Bootstrap loaders are very simple loaders which are either placed in memory manually by use of the console or placed in memory by a special piece of hardware. 1984J. Hilton Choosing & using your Home Computer 79/2 The bootstrap's job is simply to find the main DOS on the disk, and transfer it byte by byte into RAM, whereupon that DOS can take over and perform some far more sophisticated functions.
4. Chiefly attrib. in various technical usages (see quots.).
1946Jrnl. Inst. Electr. Engin. XCIII. iii a. 308/1 The ‘Bootstrap’ Circuit..is much used for generating a linear rise of voltage with time, for time-base and other purposes... It is called a ‘bootstrap’ circuit because the potential at A is apparently being ‘pulled up by its own bootstraps’. 1949Electronic Engin. XXI. 198 The bootstrap valve may be anode loaded to obtain the push-pull output. 1949R. Kelner in B. Chance et al. Electronic Time Measurements v. 125 (heading) Bootstrap Triangle Generator with Diode Comparator. 1962,1965[see sense 3 above]. |