Ask HN: What is the most amusing CS book you ever read? - mrwnmonm
======
jonjacky
_The 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.

