This was my favourite computer magazine. I liked it better than Byte (although, Circuit Cellarwas always a good read) or Dr. Dobbs Journal (originally called Dr. Dobb's Journal of Tiny BASIC Calisthenics & Orthodontia :  Running Light without Overbyte – later dropping Tiny BASIC when it became a general purpose computer magazine). It had two very strong columnists: P.J. Plauger (who wrote the column Programming on Purpose) and Stan Kelly-Bootle (who wrote the column Bit by Bit). P.J. Plauger also wrote columns for the C User’s Journal (later called C/C++ User’s Journal). All these magazine are now defunct.

Computer Language stood out for me because of (1) its excellent quality and (2) its awesome cover artwork.

Below is a sample or Stan Kelly Bootle’s writing (his style is most probably only fully enjoyed by a native English language speaker):

Every programmer hits a productivity block once in a while. The algorasmic joy of getting something to work can suddenly vanish.

A feeling known to the Greeks as abulia (the complete absence of will, shall, and maybe) sets in. (The abalone spends its entire life cycle in an abulic state, but that is an etymological coincidence.)

In some professions, abulia is immediately noticeable and punishable. We at least can hide it from our superiors (if such there be) by looking busy, feigning introspection, adding spurious comments to our code, flipping the manual, or typing some benign, long-running, screen-scrolling, hex dumping command.

Bosses vaguely believe the act of coding demands certain mysterious preludes. They may have heard the old proverb, “The sooner you start coding, the longer it takes to complete the program.” It is your duty to reinforce this myth until your listness returns. (“Listness” is the rare antonym of “listlessness”; compare with “couth,” “gusting,” and “gruntled.”)

- Stan Kelly-Bootle, Computer Language, August 1990, Are we having fun yet?

This is my favourite cover (click to enlarge):

Below is an assortment of covers (click to enlarge):

[rr : this post was pre-recorded since I am currently on holiday.]