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   clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Sunday, 20-Apr-2025 14:16:30 JST clacke
   For a wonderful thread on the occurence of the "infinite loop, see loop, infinite" joke in various programming books throughout history, see social.wildeboer.net/@jwildebo… .
   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Sunday, 20-Apr-2025 14:16:28 JST clacke

     in reply to
     Perhaps the most surprising thing we learn from the thread is that the "recursion" index entry referring to its own page in K&R 2nd Ed was lost in Polish, Italian, French and Dutch translations, but the Germans kept the joke. 😁
     Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
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     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Sunday, 20-Apr-2025 14:16:29 JST clacke

     in reply to
     For the actual thread, see social.wildeboer.net/@jwildebo… 😉
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     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Sunday, 20-Apr-2025 15:08:38 JST clacke

     in reply to

     Most of the thread is lost, probably to automatic housekeeping. Mastodon.social doesn't have it either. libranet.de/display/e5961e82-7… has dozens of comments about LISP, Turbo Pascal, etc.

     Sadly the LISP one lost its pictures because the original comment lost its server.

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     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Sunday, 20-Apr-2025 17:51:03 JST clacke

     in reply to

     • Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:
     • Phil Kalina
     • WGAvanDijk
     • Jeroen Wiert Pluimers

     A timeline:

     TAoCP Vol 1, "Circular Definition" -> "Definition, Circular" (1968)

     mastodon.social/@wiert/1128857… @wiert

     A First Course in Abstract Algebra, "Loop, infinite, See: Infinite loop" (which edition, 3rd? 1982?)

     mastodon.social/@pkalina/10939… @pkalina

     The top post, of course, K&R 2nd Ed, the index entry for "recursion" lists the index page itself (1988)

     social.wildeboer.net/@jwildebo… @jwildeboer

     Kernighan "did it more than once", but the post was lost to time:

     in.atwistedsystem.com/objects/… (lost link)

     C Traps and Pitfalls, "recursion" in the index lists the index page itself (1989)

     mastodon.social/@WGAvanDijk/11… @WGAvanDijk

     Not recursion or iteration, but:
     Common Lisp, The Language, 2nd Ed, "kludges, 1–971" (1990)

     universeodon.com/@smpaley/1094… @smpaley

     Turbo Pascal v7.0 Programmer's Reference, "Loop, infinite, See: Infinite loop" (1992)

     mastodon.social/@wiert/1093946…

     Thank you all for sharing your references!

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     Mans R (mansr@society.oftrolls.com)'s status on Monday, 21-Apr-2025 01:41:59 JST Mans R

     in reply to

     @clacke One of the best index jokes has to be the entry "sea water, see water, sea" from the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics.

     clacke likes this.
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     Jeroen Wiert Pluimers (wiert@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Apr-2025 07:19:19 JST Jeroen Wiert Pluimers

     in reply to

     • Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:
     • Phil Kalina
     • WGAvanDijk

     @clacke @jwildeboer @WGAvanDijk @pkalina @smpaley

     I archived most and summarised them in a New Year's blog post.

     Some of them however had been lost forever.

     That's why I immediately archived that blog post in the wayback machine:

     https://web.archive.org/web/20250101170124/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/

     If you have edits to that post, please let me know.

     clacke likes this.