4 ms·
Ask HN: What is the most amusing CS book you ever read?
- jonjacky 8y agoThe Devils' DP Dictionary by Stan Kelly-Bootle. From the 1980s maybe even the 1970s. I lost my copy long ago but here are a few entries I remember: Programmer: one who conducts informal research on the halting problem. Close: to invoke the 'File not open' diagnostic. Kelly-Bootle was an interesting guy. He had a career as a folk singer and songwriter in addition to being one of the first computer programmers in the UK. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Kelly-Bootle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Kelly-Bootle Algorithmics by David Harel begins each chapter with a pertinent verse from the Bible - many of the choices are clever and amusing. Also from the 1980s. IBM Jargon and General Computing Dictionary by Mike Colishaw at https://comlay.net/ibmjarg.pdf https://comlay.net/ibmjarg.pdf has some witty entries. A bit like the better known hacker's dictionary edited by Guy Steele and later by Eric Raymond, but less emphasis on technical matters and more about company traditions and office politics. From 1992. Erudition sparkles through the famous Art of Computer Programming volumes by Knuth, but I wouldn't call them amusing. After some thought, those were the best I could come up with, and they are all more then 25 years old. Also I see this is the only answer here. How discouraging.