Jan Wildeboer 😷Jan 19, 2020
Had to verify. And yes. Kernighan and Ritchie really did this. TIL :)
Show threadJan Wildeboer 😷Jan 19, 2020
And no, Stroustroup did NOT do this in the C++ book and also no, Knuth didn’t do this in AOCP :)
Show threadJeroen Wiert PluimersAug 1, 2024

@jwildeboer I finally had some time to check out more on the history of these book index puns (having gained back energy after the refurbishing and move last winter exhausted me a bit too much):

Donald Knuth did put a recursion joke in The Art of Computer Programming - Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms.

- Index and Glossary page 631: "Circular Definition"
- Index and Glossary page 633: "Definition, Circular"

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Show threadBytebro 🇬🇧 🇺🇦 🇬🇱Sep 1, 2024
@wiert @jwildeboer Just checked my copies of TCPL and AOCP and both of these 'jokes' are in there. Thanks to whomever pointed these out, as otherwise I would never have known!
Show threadJeroen Wiert PluimersSep 2, 2024
@bytebro @jwildeboer Jan came up with the TCPL one; I found the AOCP one.
Show threadBytebro 🇬🇧 🇺🇦 🇬🇱

@wiert

FWIW, you jointly win the Internet for me today!

@jwildeboer

Dec 21 at 12:14amWeb
Show threadJeroen Wiert PluimersDec 21

RE: https://wiert.me/2025/01/01/old-programming-books-had-cool-little-puns-in-their-references-modern-lack-them-in-their-indices-on-the-why-and-history-of-them/

@bytebro @jwildeboer thanks so much.

In the meantime, I have put all of them in a blog post:

https://wiert.wordpress.com/?p=162978