Re: Automatic bootstrap

[Richard M Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

    > A week or so there was a discussion about the inconvenience of the
    > existence of `make bootstrap'.  I suggested that we create a source
    > file bootstrap.el whose compiled file, bootstrap.elc, would control
    > whether `make emacs' does a bootstrap or not.  We could also change
    > bootstrap.el trivially after installing any change which we think
    > makes it advisable for testers to bootstrap afresh.
    >   

    I don't think it will work, as developers who make changes that make it 
    advisable to bootstrap would forget to change that file.

Indeed, that might happen.  But is that a reason to reject the idea?
I don't think so.  Even if things are not perfect, they will be better.

     Other 
    developers might change it needlessly, causing testers with low end 
    hardware unnecessary pain.

I don't think that is likely to happen very often.
People have no reason to do this.