The oldest computer book still on my shelves (or on my digital media) is ...

[ww]

A Programming Language, 1962

 33/9%

Programming the 1900 series in COBOL, 1974

 6/2%

Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs, 1976

 21/6%

The C Programming Language, 1978

 149/40%

System V - Interface definition, 1986

 3/1%

Z80 Assembly Language Programming, 1979

 13/4%

TheSOURCE User's Manual, 1979

 2/1%

The C Primer, 1983

 14/4%

Interactive Fortran 77, A Hands on Approach, 1984

 10/3%

Turbo-Pascal, 1989

 16/4%

Perl.1 man page, 1991

 10/3%

Other

 94/25%

371 total votes

[LanX]

The Tex Book

Donald Knuth

1984

(I also have the K&R C book¹- xeroxed in the 80s - but never really read it :)

¹) 1st edition

[LanX]

Well if digital media count too:

BASIC Computer Games 1978 (or 1973 for the first edition)

This was my first "non manual" computer book, strangely seems nobody mentioned it yet.

See https://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/

[afoken]

Independant:

"DOS 5 für Programmierer" by Arne Schäpers (ISBN 3893193502), dated 1991. It's actually a much enhanced german translation of "Undocumented DOS" by Andrew Schulman et al.

Coming with a product:

Turbo Pascal 6 with printed documentation, dated 1990

MS-DOS 4.01 printed documentation, copyrighted 1987-1989

Just bits and bytes:

Turbo C 2.01, file dates from 1989, with scanned Manual (1987) and Reference Guide (1988). Downloaded just a few weeks ago to play with virtual DOS machines.

Alexander

[erix]

Scanning the shelves:

1965: "a Pelican Original" A524:

Electronic Computers
S.H.Hollingdale and G.C.Tootill
1965

Programming RPG RPG II
Harice Seeds
1971

Algol 68
a first and second course
Andrew D. McGettrick
1978

The Architecture of Digital Computers
R.G. Garside
1980

Structured Computer Organisation (second ed.)
Andrew S. Tanenbaum
1984

Several Oracle 6 (1988) manuals

And so on and so forth :)

For some of my books, when I squint at them for just a bit longer than a second, I feel again the joy of reading them, understanding them, long ago.

[Tux]

Side-by-side I saw

• "The C programming Language" (1978)
• "HP 3000 Computer Systems MPE software pocket guide" (1981)
• the two volumes of "System V Interface definition" (1986) (fallen apart from how often it was used)
• "MC68020 32bit Microprocessor User's Manual" (1984)
• "Uniplex II plus" (1986)
• "ANS-Cobol" (1974)
• "The Unix System" (1983) by Bourne

IIRC there must be a three-volume set of nice blue bound books with the System III manual

[blue_cowdawg]

Do punch cards count as digital media? Finally got rid of the last of those when I was cleaning house making room for my dad to move in.

There are several mag tape reels in my one closet, some DC100 tapes of various types, 5-inch floppies, 3-inch floppies, a couple of 8-inch floppies and some zip drives.

That's the digital stuff

I have a book on Unix internals that dates back to sometime before I started working at Bell Labs in 1989, The Zen and Art of USENET, a book on how the USENET backbone is connected, a book from (3M? Xerox?) about "Ethernet."

One of my favorite possessions (well worn and marked on) is Volume I Issue 1 of Byte Magazine.

All sorts of magazines dating back to the beginnings of the microprocessor revolution. I may even have the original plans for an Intel 8008 based computer which was my first real computer project.

I might even still have my book on Fortran IV from when I was in High School. I tossed my COBOL book deciding I'm never going to look at that horrible language ever again.

Memories... lots of them...

[johngg]

In my first programming job I was handed a copy of "Guide to Fortran IV Programming" by Daniel D McCracken (1973) to learn from but, sadly, it wasn't mine to keep so isn't on my shelves. They did send me on a training course as well after a few months :-)

[planetscape]

Would have to be something for the Commodore VIC-20. More like in storage (in a closet) than on my shelf, but no, I haven't got rid of it. (Dragons are, by nature, hoarders. ;-))

[smknjoe]

Come to think it, mine would also be related to Commodore as well, but would be about the C64 instead. Still have a lot of magazines with basic and assembly language code snippets. And the things people are still using that machine for....

[planetscape]

Indeed!

Sadly I lost many old Byte, Compute, etc. magazines when the lower levels of my cavern flooded...

I bet you remember typing in lines and lines of numbers with checksums from Compute! books that represented machine-language programs fed to a special loader coded in BASIC... ;-)

[johngg]

I think the oldest I have is "Pascal User Manual And Report" 2nd edition, Jensen & Wirth of 1975. I do have an ICL 1900 Cobol quick reference card stashed away somewhere but I've no idea why I've kept it as the last time I wrote a Cobol program was in 1984!

[BillKSmith]

I also am a hoarder, but a recent move forced me to discard all my FORTRAN, PASCAL, and SYSTEM 360 books. I no longer remember the name, but the oldest of them described a version of FORTRAN which predated the 1966 standard.

The oldest book to survive the cut is Structured Design . Its advice remains valuable for any non-trivial program.

[jdporter]

(LISP 1.5 PRIMER
  (BY
    (CLARK WEISSMAN)))

Yes, that's the actual title... 1967!

Update: Upon reflection, I guess it's a little disingenuous to suggest that it's "still" on my shelf, since I acquired it some time quite a bit later than 1967...

[karlgoethebier]

"...the actual title... 1967"

May i ask if you read it in this year?

But please wait before you implode and read the current poll ;-)

Best regards, Karl

[chuckbutler]

It is amazing the documents one gathers over time. I used APL in my early career, so I still have many books, papers, and documents from then. Algol and Pascal items are also included in my collection; Niklaus Wirth would be proud!

[choroba]

Jack Purdum, C Programming Guide, 1983.

[ww]

In the interest of full disclosure (or maybe it's second or third level bragging rights), (/me reddens) TheSource User's Manual (well, its brown, thick, three-ring binder which has, admittedly, been re-purposed) still holds a place on the shelves above my router (a device of which few of us even dreamed when TheSource was in business)... as does my beloved (and much tattered) Z80 Assembly Language Programming, Leventhal, et al.

... and in a further admission of guilt, I failed in my efforts to find links with pictures of documentation for my PDP-11... or of its GIGUNDO, IMMENSE, HUGE 5 !!!! Meg HD with removable 10-inch platters (that drew nearly 20 amps on startup)... or it's 1-inch tape drive (recording, IIRC, at about the same pace as data flowed thru a 300 baud modem)   until, much belatedly, I stumbled upon this from M$, yet!

Of course, that one deals with the 11-10 and 11-20... but there is a readily recognizable DEC logo on the cover.

[fullermd]

Appears to be a tie, between Programmer's Guide to the IBM System/360 (1969), and (Computer Readings Series) An Introduction To Computer Systems, apparently edited 1969, mostly a collection of reprited articles from the latter half of the 60's.

(neither of which I ever had cause to use in anger, of course ;)

ETA: An honorable mention: A FORTRAN Coloring Book, 1978 8-}

[blue_cowdawg]

Appears to be a tie, between Programmer's Guide to the IBM System/360 (1969)

I'd forgotten all about that one. I probably don't have it any more though. In all likelihood it was a victim of one of my purges.

[Hermano23]

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

1985

Not as old as most people's answer, great book though.

[Ratazong]

I have two old books I still resist to throw away:

• Programmieren mit PASCAL by Ruedeger Baumann (1980) which contains many small exercises for learning how to program
• Artificial Intelligence and Computer Games by Richard Bartle (1985) - simply a classic from the author of MUD!

On the other hand, my old K&R has been sent for recycling long ago (I never really liked it anyways)

So long, Rata

[BrowserUk]

The Basic-Plus Language Manual for PDP-11 Resource Time Sharing System dated 1971/1972; though my first encounter with it was around 1977/78. (And it's in a box in the loft somewhere.)

On my desk is K&R 1978.

In the cupboard behind me are The C++ programming Language by Bjarne Stroustrup; 1986 & Programming in C++ by Stephen C. Dewhurst & Kathy T. Stark; 1989.

I've a relatively recently acquired digital copy of Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs, 1976 to replace the two copies I've lent out and not had returned over the years.

[mr_mischief]

I may have something older at home. At work right now my oldest, and among my oldest overall hardcopy books about computers anyway, is Introduction to IBM System/360 Assembler Language Programming by Barry J. Passen from 1973.

Edit:
It turns out I do have at least one older volume at home. That is Compiler Construction for Digital Computers by David Gries. It's from 1971 and published by John Wiley.

[swampyankee]

I think I still have my IITRAN manual from college (see http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=363235.363257). I definitely have Kernighan and Plauger's Software Tool and Elements of Programming Style.

[ikegami]

Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools (the "red dragon book"), 1986 (though my copy was printed much later).

At my parent's, I probably still have reference manuals for DOS and BASIC (from when computer documentation came in ringed binders) that might be older.

[ww]

++ again and again (were I able). Your links are perfectly in accord with the poll itself.

[Laurent_R]

The Art of Computer Programming, Vol 3, "Sorting and Searching", by Donald Knuth, 1973. My copies of the other volumes of the book are more recent (the 1990's). I bought Vol. 3 second hand, I believe.

Otherwise, K&R's The C Programming Language, but the only second edition (1988).

[drpaz]

Lyons commentary on the unix kernel (with source).. Still a good goto (pardon the pun)

[chacham]

(pardon the pun)

if you make it a bit more functional. :)

[pme]

"VAX/VMS Internals and Data Structures" by Lawrence J. Kenah and Simon F. Bate, 1983.

[hippo]

The oldest such book on the shelf behind me as I type is the Conference Digest from the 1970 Computational Physics Conference in London. Plenty of good stuff in there (along with some typesetting techniques never to be seen these days - typewritten equations with hand-drawn symbols (such as the integral sign) added later!).

I no longer have it, but for many years I retained an 11x14 printout of the man page from perl4 (IIRC 4.036). This was the text from which I originally learned Perl and which I went back to time and again as a reference. Nowadays the prevalence of perldoc and the splitting of the one man page into many means that this approach is obsolete, of course.

[girarde]

"Thinking FORTH", Leo Brodie, 1984. I now wonder what happened to my copying of Starting FORTH: there was a flood last year.

[perloHolic()]

COBOL for Students - Andrew Parkin - 1982..... wow

[ambrus]

If Donald Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming counts as a computer book, then that's the oldest one I have, for the translation of volumes 1–3 is based on the second edition from 1981.

Otherwise, it's one of the thick volume IBM Personal Computer XT Technical Reference (1983), or the digital copy of the blue book Adele Goldberg, David Robson: Smalltalk-80: the language and its implementation (1983) which you can download (scanned) from http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr/FreeBooks/BlueBook/Bluebook.pdf.

[Anonymous Monk]

I recently moved and left behind almost every paper book I own. This means the oldest computer book on my current laptop is Reverse Engineering for Beginners by Dennis Yurichev, and it's first copyright date is 2013. There goes my grognard credibility.

[Perlbotics]

P L O T T E N

MIT DEM COMPUTERSYSTEM
 
O L I V E T T I  P 6 0 6 0


EINE SYSTEMATISCHE EINFUEHRUNG IN DAS PROGRAMMIEREN

DES INTEGRIERTEN PLOTTERS

RELEASE 2.0




((  a plotted star-like logo ))




HERAUSGEBER: DEUTSCHE OLIVETTI GMBH, FRANKFURT (M)

AUSGABE JANUAR 1978

I tried to replicate the layout of this A4 manual from the late 70's.
As you might have guessed, this manual is a systematical introduction in programming the internal plotter of an Olivetti P6060.
It was programmed using a proprietary BASIC dialect. Plotting was done line by line using a thermal printer. A better programmable calculator, but for my younger self, it was magic! :-)
This device (40-50kg) was brought by our school (IIRC on initiative of an enthusiastic teacher) around 1981. Later, it got company from an Apple II, followed by an Apple IIc.
Ah, nostalgia ... when books about programming languages had less than 800 pages ;-)

[bliako]

 when books about programming languages had less than 800 pages

and were not meant for Dummies...

[Silvermouse]

SPITBOL version 2.0 Reference manual. Feb 12, 1971. Wrote a distant ancestor of Dragon's software in that.

Recursive Programming in LISP, 1977

[s-spd]

My oldest are,

Programming with Curses - John Strang - 1986

Sed & Awk - Dale Dougherty - 1991

Learning the Vi Editor - Linda Lamb & Arnold Robbins - 1998

[chacham]

Programming with Curses - John Strang - 1986

Oh #@$*! I forgot about that one.

[salva]

Computer Programming and Architecture: The Vax (1984)

[carpecrustum]

Fundamentals of Data Structures
Ellis Horowitz and Sartaj Sahni
1976

[Anonymous Monk]

Mine is 'The C Programming Language', given to me by a friend that started C programming a long time ago but has moved on to Python.

[naunga]

Having purged a number of books, the oldest book on my shelves is a first edition of the camel book...that I still use.

[chacham]

What is the oldest possible book anyway?

[Athanasius]

What is the oldest possible book anyway?

It probably should be this work from 1842:

Sketch of
The Analytical Engine
Invented by Charles Babbage
By L. F. MENABREA
[...]
With notes upon the Memoir by the Translator
ADA AUGUSTA, COUNTESS OF LOVELACE

which reputedly contains the first-ever computer programme — except that it’s too short to be a book. :-(

So it’s quite possibly this book from 1864:

Passages from the Life of a Philosopher by Charles Babbage

in which Chapter VIII is devoted to the Analytical Engine.

:-)

[chacham]

computer programme

So, i started looking up when the English adopted "programme" as the new spelling of "program." I've just seen "19th century," and i'd like to match the year. Though, it seems less likely to make a difference, as even the English use "program" to refer to computer programming.

But then i looked again. You come from Australia, where "programme" is indeed used for computer programs, though there are confusing reports, with one article claiming it is political.

On further thought, though, Australia had not yet achieved nationhood in the 19th century. So, i figure the best term is indeed "computer program," at least when referring to this example. :)

[RonW]

except that it’s too short to be a book.

Booklet, maybe? I would count it.

[Anonymous Monk]

the Rosetta Stone 196 BC, although I'm not sure how to read it since the Perl translation was lost over time.

[erix]

But the Rosetta stone had no 'computing' dimension as fas as I can see.

These tally sticks do. Some are quite a bit older, too.

Other old-book contenders are Fibonacci's Liber Abaci (1202) or the latest of Al-Khwarizmi (9th C). There is even older Indian and Chinese stuff.

But on my shelves, alas, nothing older than 1965.

[bliako]

On the shelves:

The Spectrum Book of Games, James, Gee, Ewbank, 1983

Software for the Spectrumm, 1984

page after page of source code to type in and hopefully save on tape. That's why these books are shelved.

Now, under my pillow I have K&R. I carry Unix Network Programming in my hunch. I once rolled a cigarette out of its margins. There was no communication then, we were pretty much solid. great poll.

[james28909]

I haven't bought any programming books yet. :0