Because BOOTS have a BOOTSTRAP. Boots are difficult to pull on over your feet. When boots were originally made a BOOTSTRAP was added to make it easier to get them on.
Now, people USE the BOOTSTRAP to put on their boots, usually at the beginning of their day. They have to have on their boot to START their day.
SO... the word BOOTSTRAP was used to refer to any activity which helped you START or RESTART something.
When a COMPUTER is started or restarted it is called BOOTING or REBOOTING. That term is just short for BOOTSTRAPPING. Bootstrapping a computer refers to performing a procedure which loads the INITIAL program that enables the computer to run other programs and do it's 'work'.
“Bootstrapping a computer refers to performing a procedure which loads the INITIAL program that enables the computer to run other programs and do it’s ‘work’”
Close. I’d say further that the earlier computers had no program at all in them when turned on. There was no rom in the computer to contain startup code. On the particular computer I used first, we’d have to put an input instruction into the console keys and have it executed. That single instruction would read in the startup code and jump to it. “bootstrapping” was an apt term for this situation.
Isn’t it something how the term “reboot” has come into use to mean restarting a previously ended tv series.
Never trust a computer you can’t throw out a window.
Don’t bother with ever trusting a socialist.