The Computer Contradictionary, by Stan Kelly-Bootle, is a satirical dictionary 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.
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: Recursion
Reception The Los Angeles Times, including the book in a review of more serious high-tech lexicons, wrote that it was "smartly-titled" but was an "awfully stupid book". ACM Computing Reviews suggested an approach of dipping into it, because "a dictionary is a difficult read".
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