Stan Kelly-Bootle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Stan Kelly-Bootle (born 1929, in Liverpool), notable for achieving the first postgraduate degree in computer science (1954), is a prolific author (nine books, numerous magazine articles), and songwriter (his folk songs have been performed by artists such as Pete Seeger).

Kelly-Bootle is well known in the computer community for his books The Devil's DP Dictionary and its second edition, The Computer Contradictionary (these are sarcastical/cynical lexicographies in the vein of Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary). His articles for magazines such as ACM Queue, AI / Expert, and UNIX Review have been stunning examples of word-play, criticism of silly marketing and usage (he refers often to the computer "laxicon") and commentary on the industry in general. Kelly-Bootle has also written an online monthly column posted on the Internet (see external links, below).

Stan Kelly-Bootle was schooled at the Liverpool Institute and Downing College, Cambridge. He started his computing career programming the pioneering EDSAC computer, designed and built at Cambridge University (fully operational 1949).