what should bootstrap *really* do?

[Geert Bosch]

On 14 Nov 2000 16:16:17 -0200, Alexandre Oliva wrote:

  I already find it bad enough that the default rule is not the one we
  recommend for users.  IMHO, adding more complexity to that is a bad
  idea.  I'd rather keep `bootstrap' simple for end users (i.e., have it
  proceed from the point in which it stopped, for whatever reason) and
  create alternate rules for developers.

If "make bootstrap" is supposed to be simple and safe, we should always
do a complete bootstrap and not try to resume an old one which is bound
to lead to nasty hard-to-reproduce problems. Indeed we can use alternate
rules for developers for whom the reduced recompilations might outweigh
the extra complexity.