''The Computer Contradictionary'' is a

non-fiction Non-fiction (or nonfiction) is any document or content (media), media content that attempts, in good faith, to convey information only about the real life, real world, rather than being grounded in imagination. Non-fiction typically aims to pre ...

book by

Stan Kelly-Bootle Stanley Bootle, known as Stan Kelly-Bootle (15 September 1929 – 16 April 2014), was a British author, academic, singer-songwriter and computer scientist. He took his stage name Stan Kelly (he was not known as Stan Kelly-Bootle in folk music cir ...

that compiles a satirical list of definitions of computer industry terms. It was originally published as 'The devil's DP dictionary'. it is an example of "cynical lexicography" in the tradition of

Ambrose Bierce Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – ) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book '' The Devil's Dictionary'' was named one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by the ...

's ''

The Devil's Dictionary ''The Devil's Dictionary'' is a satirical dictionary written by American journalist Ambrose Bierce, consisting of common words followed by humorous and satirical definitions. The lexicon was written over three decades as a series of installments ...

''. Rather than offering a factual account of usage, its definitions are largely made up by the author. The book was published in May 1995 by

MIT Press The MIT Press is the university press of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MIT Press publishes a number of academic journals and has been a pioneer in the Open Ac ...

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: ''Recursion''

Reception

The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', which praised 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

Satirical books MIT Press books 1995 books Computer humour {{compu-book-stub