Ask HN: Nicknames for Computer Science Books?

[temeya]

Hi HN,

From that scene in Hackers where they were listing off books with nicknames (ex. Compiler: Principles, Techniques and Tools, aka "The Dragon Book," I ended up being curious about what other books might also have the same treatment. This is the current list I have, scoured from places like Wikipedia, Amazon and other forums, but I wondered if anyone found anything else? (This is just for my own curiosity)

The AWK Programming Language, Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, Brian Kernighan, aka "The Gray Book"

The C Programming Language, Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, aka "The White Book"

Compilers: Principles, Techniques and Tools, aka "The Red/Purple Dragon Book"

Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, aka "The Pillar Book"

The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System, aka "The Devil Book"

Foundations of Computer Science, Aho, Alfred and Ullman, Jeffrey, aka "The Turtle Book"

Introduction to Automata Theory, aka "The Cinderella Book"

Lions' Commentary on UNIX, 6th Edition, aka "The Lions Book"

Modern Compiler Implementation in ML, aka "The Tiger Book"

Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces, aka "The Comet Book"

The OpenGL Programming Guide, aka "The Red Book"

The Peter Norton Programmer's Guide to the IBM PC, aka "The Pink Shirt Book"

Principles of Compiler Design, aka "The Green Dragon Book"

Programming Perl, aka "The Camel Book"

Programming Ruby, aka "The Pickaxe Book"

Smalltalk-80: The Language and its Implementation, aka "The Blue Book"

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, aka "The Wizard Book"

Unix Power Tools, aka "The Unix Book"

[quadhome]

Phantom Phreak: You got those Crayola books?

Cereal Killer: Yeah, technicolor rainbow. Yeah. Green one.

Joey: What is that? Let me see? What are these?

Crash Override: International UNIX environments.

Cereal Killer: Luscious orange.

Crash Override: Computer security criteria... DoD standards.

Crash Override: The pink-shirt book... guide to IBM PCs. So-called due to the nasty pink shirt the guy wears on the cover.

Crash Override: Devil book, the UNIX bible.

Cereal Killer: What's that?

Crash Override: Dragon book, compiler design.

Cereal Killer: What's that?

Crash Override: The Red book. NSA-trusted networks. Otherwise known as 'The Ugly Red Book That Won't Fit On A Shelf'.

[greenyoda]

> The C Programming Language, Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, aka "The White Book"

I've always heard it referred to as "K&R".

[seanhunter]

Yeah. I've never heard it called "the white book".

Also there are a couple of other great books which are white eg Kernighan and Pike "The Unix Programming Environment" and "The practise of programming", and all of TCP/IP Illustrated. In fact pretty much any book I can think of published by Addison and Wesley is white.

[gaws]

or, The C Bible

[tjr]

http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/B/book-titles.html

[atulvi]

Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software - "The gang of four book".

[seanhunter]

I've always just herad of that one as GoF or "Gang of Four". (curses be upon them etc etc).

[carolinar7]

Here is one:

Introduction to Algorithms - “CLRS”

[Exlexus]

Based off author's surnames iirc.

[smnv]

Designing Data-Intensive Application, aka “The Boar Book” (kabanchik)

[kingkongjaffa]

I mostly see it referred to as DDIA and most people know already what the acronyms means. I don’t know if an acronym counts for OP’s naming scheme though.

[xarici_ishler]

It's probably better if you provide a bit more context: "boar" is "kabanchik" in Russian

[contracode]

Operating Systems Concepts, aka "The Dinosaur Book".

[zvr]

You mention "The Blue Book" of Smalltalk-80, but they were actually three of them: besides that one, the Green Book, a collection of implementation histories and such, and the Orange Book, a user guide to the original environment. And then came the Purple Book, which was originally a new edition of the Blue Book without part IV which became freely available.

I've never heard the compiler books being referenced as the color of the dragon: they were the Dragon Book and the New Dragon Book -- or, as time passed, the Original Dragon Book and the Dragon Book.

[Someone]

Postscript also has red (reference manual), green (program design) and blue (tutorial and cookbook) books

[xwowsersx]

Not sure if this counts but Types and Programming Languages (Pierce) is commonly referred to as "TAPL", pronounced "tapple".. like "apple" with a "t" in the beginning

[temeya]

Funny, I've taken to calling it the Brick Book for its brickwall cover.

[layer8]

The Red Book also refers to the specification of audio CDs.

Most of these nicknames aren’t widely known. The Dragon Book is probably the most well-known.

[BruceEel]

The 2nd edition of Allen Holub's "Compiler Design in C" too was known as "Red Book". https://www.abebooks.co.uk/9780131551510/Compiler-Design-Hol...

[hiyer]

I've read 9 of these books but had heard of the nicknames for only 2 of those - the Camel book and the Dragon book.

[currymj]

"Quantum Computation and Quantum Information" by Michael Nielsen and Isaac Chuang -- "Mike and Ike"

[pimlottc]

You've got the Camel Book for Perl, there's also the Llama Book, which is "Learning Perl".

[CalChris]

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs is usually referred to as SICP.

[temeya]

Yes, I've usually heard it as SICP, but apparently Wikipedia[0] cites "The New Hacker's Dictionary" as where it gets its name.

[0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structure_and_Interpretation...

[seanhunter]

Knuth "The art of computer programming", aka TAOCP or just "Knuth" but I think that's unfair to his "Concrete Maths" book maybe.

Freidl "Mastering Regular Expressions" aka "The Owl Book"

[eimrine]

TAoCP is "the three volumes" and I know that there are more than three volumes of it.

[5555624]

There's the "Rainbow Series" originally published by the US Department of Defense Computer Security Center:

Orange - DoD Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria Green - DoD Password Management Guideline Light Yellow - Guidance for Applying TCSEC in Specific Environments Yellow - Technical Rationale Behind CSC-STD-003-85: Computer Security Requirements Tan - A Guide to Understanding Audit in Trusted Systems Bright Blue - Trusted Product Security Evaluation Program Neon Orange - Discretionary Access Control in Trusted Systems Teal Green - Glossary of Computer Security Terms Red - Trusted Network Interpretation Amber - Configuration Management in Trusted Systems Burgundy - A Guide to Understanding Design Documentation in Trusted Systems Dark Lavender - A Guide to Understanding Trusted Distribution in Trusted Systems Venice Blue - Computer Security Subsystem Interpretation of the TCSEC Aqua - A Guide to Understanding Security Modeling in Trusted Systems Red - Trusted Network Interpretation Environments Guideline (TNI) - Trusted Database Management System Interpretation [3] Pink - RAMP Program Document Pink - RAMP Program Document version 2 Purple - Guidelines for Formal Verification Systems Brown - Guide to Understanding Trusted Facility Management Yellow-Green - Guidelines for Writing Trusted Facility Manuals Light Blue - Identification and Authentication in Trusted Systems Light Blue - Object Reuse in Trusted Systems Blue - Trusted Product Evaluation Questionnaire Silver - Trusted UNIX Working Group (TRUSIX) Rationale for Selecting Access Control List Features for the UNIX System Grey Silver - Trusted UNIX Working Group (TRUSIX) Rationale for Selecting Access Control List Features for the UNIX (R) System Purple - Trusted Database Management System Interpretation of the TCSEC (TDI) Yellow - Trusted Recovery in Trusted Systems Bright Orange - Security Testing and Test Documentation in Trusted Systems Purple - Procurement of Trusted Systems: An Introduction to Procurement Initiators on Computer Security Requirements Purple - Procurement of Trusted Systems: Language for RFP Specifications and Statements of Work Purple - Procurement of Trusted Systems: Computer Security Contract Data Requirements List and Data Item Description Purple - Procurement of Trusted Systems: How to Evaluate a Bidder's Proposal Document Forest Green - Guide to Understanding Data Remanence in Automated Information Systems. Hot Peach - Writing the Security Features User's Guide for Trusted Systems Turquoise - Information System Security Officer Responsibilities for Automated Information Systems Violet - Assessing Controlled Access Protection Blue - Certification and Accreditation Concepts Light Pink - Covert Channel Analysis of Trusted Systems

[Someone]

Inside Macintosh, promotional edition: the phone book (because it matched phone books in page size, paper quality and thickness)

[BFay]

Database Management Systems, aka "The Cow Book"

[tkb]

Sendmail - "The Bat Book"

[seanhunter]

OMG all of the times I had to refer to that book count as amoung the worst times of my unix life. That is the Unix equivalent of a book of black magic that will forever curse your life once you dare to dip into it. Thank goodness I discovered qmail before too much damage was done.

[layer8]

There’s an email client called “The Bat!” — I never made the connection.