7.8 /10 1 Votes
Country United States Publication date May 1995 Pages 256 pages Originally published May 1995 | 3.9/5 Goodreads Language English Media type Print ISBN 0-262-61112-0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Similar UNIX Complete, Understanding UNIX, The Devil's Dictionary | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Computer Contradictionary is a non-fiction book by Stan Kelly-Bootle that compiles a satirical list of definitions of computer industry terms. It is an example of "cynical lexicography" in the tradition of Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary. Rather than offering a factual account of usage, its definitions are largely made up by the author.
Contents
The book was published in May 1995 by MIT Press and is an update of Kelly-Bootle's The Devil's DP Dictionary which appeared in 1981.
Examples
Endless loop. See: Loop, endless Loop, endless. See: Endless loop Recursion. See: RecursionReception
The Los Angeles Times panned the book, wrote that it was "smartly-titled" but was an "awfully stupid book". ACM Computing Reviews recommended dipping into it because "a dictionary is a difficult read".
References
The Computer Contradictionary Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA