''The Computer Contradictionary'' is a

non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with b ...

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 circ ...

that compiles a satirical list of definitions of computer industry terms. 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 as one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by ...

'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 a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publ ...

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'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' 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

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