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Miloslav Ciz 2024-08-08 22:37:16 +02:00
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@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ Bootstrapping -- as the general concept of letting a big thing grow out of a sma
Bootstrapping has to start with some initial prerequisite machine dependent binary code that kickstarts the self-establishing process, i.e. it's not possible to get rid of absolutely ALL binary code and have a pure bootstrappable code that would run on every computer -- that would require making a program that can native run on any computer, which can't be done -- but it is possible to get it to absolute minimum -- let's say a few dozen bytes of machine code that can even be hand-made on paper and can be easily inspected for "safety". This initial binary code is called *bootstrapping binary seed*. This code can be as simple as a mere translator of some extremely simple bytecode (that may consist only of handful of instructions) to the platform's assembly language. There even exists the extreme case of a single instruction computer, but in practice it's not necessary to go as far. The initial binary seed may then typically be used to translate a precompiled bytecode of our system's compiler to native runnable code and voila, we can now happily start compiling whatever we want.
[Forth](forth.md) is a language that has traditionally been used for making bootstrapping environments; [Dusk OS](duskos.md) is an example of such project. Similarly simple language such as [Lisp](lisp.md) and [comun](comun.md) can work too (GNU Mes uses a combination of [Scheme](scheme.md) and C).
[Forth](forth.md) is a language that has traditionally been used for making bootstrapping environments -- its paradigm and philosophy is ideal for bootstrapping as it's based on the concept of building a computing environment practically from nothing just by defining new and new words using previously defined simpler words, fitting the definition of bootstrapping perfectly. [Dusk OS](duskos.md) is a project demonstrating this. Similarly simple language such as [Lisp](lisp.md) and [comun](comun.md) can work too (GNU Mes uses a combination of [Scheme](scheme.md) and C).
**How to do this then?** To make a computing environment that can bootstrap itself you can do it like this: