Cinderella Book

from Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)
Cinderella Book
 n.

   [CMU] Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation, by
   John Hopcroft and Jeffrey Ullman, (Addison-Wesley, 1979). So called
   because the cover depicts a girl (putatively Cinderella) sitting in
   front of a Rube Goldberg device and holding a rope coming out of it.
   On the back cover, the device is in shambles after she has
   (inevitably) pulled on the rope. See also {book titles}.
    
from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
Cinderella Book

   <publication> "Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and
   Computation", by John Hopcroft and Jeffrey Ullman,
   (Addison-Wesley, 1979).  So called because the cover depicts a
   girl (putatively Cinderella) sitting in front of a Rube
   Goldberg device and holding a rope coming out of it.  On the
   back cover, the device is in shambles after she has
   (inevitably) pulled on the rope.

   See also {book titles}.

   [{Jargon File}]

   (1996-12-03)
    

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