A few years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Knuth in his home, my wife was doing some photography for him. He took me to his room and showed me his setup, he was researching Soduku algorithms at the time. His hands were blisteringly quick, moving between EMacs panes, triggering evaluations and printing of results, as fast as any 20 year old. In his 80s , he hasn’t seemed to suffer any mental decline.<p>I started talking to him about some of the latest AI research and he mentioned the papers authors, he had already read them! Not only is he still very productive at 84, but he has not ossified into one particular subject but he continues to keep abreast of other related fields.<p>He also played his huge pipe organ for us, he was gracious, humble, down to earth, truly a treasure. I only wish he could live another hundred years, selfishly so I could see Volumes 5, 6, and 7 of Art of Computer Programming finished.<p>I should not with some sadness that COVID hit not long after and that year we lost a number of other luminaries in the field like Jon Conway.
Note that, to get an idea of the contents, you can see the previously published fascicles, and earlier drafts online (pre-fascicles):<p>• Mathematical Preliminaries Redux: <a href="https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/fasc5a.ps.gz" rel="nofollow">https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/fasc5a.ps.gz</a><p>• 7.2.2 Introduction to Backtracking: <a href="https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/fasc5b.ps.gz" rel="nofollow">https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/fasc5b.ps.gz</a><p>• 7.2.2.1 Dancing Links: <a href="https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/fasc5c.ps.gz" rel="nofollow">https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/fasc5c.ps.gz</a><p>• 7.2.2.2 Satisfiability: <a href="https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/fasc6a.ps.gz" rel="nofollow">https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/fasc6a.ps.gz</a><p>The first three were published together as "Volume 4, Fascicle 5" in 2019, and the last one—Satisfiability—was published as "Volume 4, Fascicle 6" in 2015. Of course the actual publication as Volume 4B has hundreds of fixes and additions beyond what was published earlier, and a lovely preface that you can read here: <a href="https://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=3143614" rel="nofollow">https://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=3143614</a><p>> <i>You might think that a 700-page book has probably been padded with peripheral material. But I constantly had to "cut, cut, cut" while writing it, because […] new and potentially interesting-yet-unexplored topics kept popping up, more than enough to fill a lifetime; yet I knew that I must move on. […] I wrote nearly a thousand computer programs while preparing this material, because I find that I don't understand things unless I try to program them.</i>
In Google’s recent “Hacking Google” series [1] they appeared to credit Knuth via his bug reward program in his books [2] as having created the first software bug bounty offer.<p>Anyone aware of any software bug bounties that predate Knuth’s?<p>___________<p>[1] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33066313" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33066313</a><p>- specifically: <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=IoXiXlCNoXg&list=PL590L5WQmH8dsxxz7ooJAgmijwOz0lh2H&index=6" rel="nofollow">https://youtube.com/watch?v=IoXiXlCNoXg&list=PL590L5WQmH8dsx...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Knuth_reward_check" rel="nofollow">https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Knuth_reward_check</a>
Very cool. I own the originals and the 4th but sadly I have to admit that even though I am a reasonably accomplished developer with a couple of CS degrees I have a hard time understanding this work and have not yet really read it. I feel like I am publicly admitting failure just posting this. I still have time to make sure these are not just bookshelf decorations though.
Nostalgia time! When I graduated years ago, Knuth's books were still all the rage because the central themes in the CS departments in universities were fundamentals: algorithms, compiler theory, operating systems and what not. We referenced TAOCP for implementing the priority queue using fibonacci heap for our OS projects. We studied chapters on vol 2 for some of the numerical algorithms, and etc. We read Parsing Techniques cover to cover to understand how to write a parser. We still carefully studied AI: A Modern Approach and the dragon/dinosaur/tiger book. Every once in a while a discussion on Knuth's work went to the first page of HN or Programming Reddit. Then, we got more and more mature libraries, and we rarely needed to understand 10 different algorithms that solve the same class of problems. Consequently, we got fewer discussion about Knuth's work too. Of course, it's super fun to read his meticulous discussion of combinatorial algorithms in Vol 4. It just that TAOCP does not appear as essential to as many people as a decode ago.
Can someone honestly tell me if they have actually read these books AND found them useful ON TGE JOB? What do you guys do for work?
I tried reading part 1?? Like ten years ago and it was pretty much assembly language or something I believe. And gave up since it wasnt something that I needed in academia back then and there were far better ways to learn DSA
This is one of those book series that I really, <i>really</i> want to purchase as a beautiful, matching, leather-bound set. And, yes, I would read it for pleasure, and I would treasure it.
There's something beautiful about his work on the series. He's been working on it for years, built TeX (not sure if that was for this series or other books of his), and has such ambitious plans. He's a serious legend in the field of computer science and we're lucky to have someone like him to have provided our industry with so much incredible knowledge. I'm interested to see how the series progresses for the next 30 years.<p>He also seems like the kind of guy you'd want to have a cup of coffee or tea with. Always seemed like a fun and sweet guy in the interviews I've seen with him.
I was hoping that Fascicle 7 would come out, as that would be on Constraint Programming, and I think that's very similar to SAT-solvers (Fascicle 6) and the BDDs that he's already covered.<p>Then again: SAT-solvers are a big enough subject matter on their own that backtracking search + SAT-solvers is more than enough to fill a volume of its own. So choosing these two subjects as volume 4B makes sense.<p>-----------<p>As a fan of constraint programming, I'd love to see Knuth's take on the subject. I hope he doesn't skip over Fasicle 7.
I once had the pleasure of listening to Knuth speak at my university's computer science department. I joined the very large queue of other people, and expected the great man to totally revolutionise my understanding of – well, I didn't know what, but <i>something</i>. Computer programming to TeX, I don't mind. I was expecting enlightening solutions to famously difficult problems, a great study of algorithms, that kind of thing.<p>Well, what happened was that he spoke for nearly two hours on self-referential aptitude tests. The kind of "20 questions" game where the 20th question is "The maximum score obtainable on this test is (a) 18 (b) 19 (c) 20 (d) indeterminate (e) achievable only by getting this question wrong" and all of the others are inherently recursively linked. I had no idea these things existed, even less of an idea why anyone would want to study them, and came away later with both mind dripping down the side of my skull and a greater appreciation of SAT solvers and compiler design in functional programming languages. Highly recommended.<p>(And if anyone wants to do the quiz, it's here: [1] <a href="https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/paradox.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/paradox.pdf</a>)
Many years ago I needed to understand hashing for an important work project. I sat down and read Knuth's chapter on hashing. It was very, very good and it helped to greatly accelerate my project work.<p>However.<p>What I also learned is how impossibly large a topic even just hashing is. A section of Knuth's encyclopedia isn't sufficient space to cover it thoroughly (for some definition of thoroughly) and further research showed how much progress had been made in the subject since Knuth published his work.<p>This isn't a complaint about Knuth, again, I'm grateful for how much his writing accelerated my understanding. But further research underlined how impossible a task he's undertaken.
A copy personally autographed by Knuth will be up for auction in the Gathering For Gardner fund raiser.<p>* The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 4B: Combinatorial Algorithms, Part 2<p>* <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Art-Computer-Programming-Combinatorial-Information/dp/0201038064/" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Art-Computer-Programming-Combinatoria...</a>
Ironically once I studied a part of TAOCP dealing with parallel bit computation as I heard it would help with a Chip vendor I was applying to for a job. The end-of-day boss fight interview arrived with a puzzle I directly solved with my TAOCP knowledge. The result was they failed me on the interview. They said the job wouldn't stretch me. As the years have passed I wonder if what I should have said was "there's no way I could solve this but I know about it from TAOCP already so this is what you do ..."
From the (apparently still hand-coded html) web page:<p>The fourth volume of The Art of Computer Programming deals with Combinatorial Algorithms, the area of computer science where good techniques have the most dramatic effects. I love it the most, because one good idea can often make a program run a million times faster. It's a huge, fascinating subject, and I published Part 1 (Volume 4A, 883 pages, now in its twenty-first printing) in 2011.
very amusingly, the entire 700+ page volume covers only Sections 7.2.2.1 and 7.2.2.2 of <i>The Art</i>.<p><i>The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne</i>
50 years ago, he claimed he was going to write 10 volumes of TAOCP. The actuarial tables are not encouraging here.<p>He doesn't respond to emails, but his assistant does, and I sent a copy of my book about Xerox to his home address. No answer. But hey, it was worth a shot.
Can someone write a volume 0 or volume -1 or some guide so noobs like me who want to enter this treasure chest can do so. I got lost just trying to start this so it might be over my head. I know Python, rusty on Java and cpp never touched assembly.
I can barely find time to read 3-4 pages of a novel before I pass out before bed. I look at volumes like this, Churchill's The Second World War, Summa Theologica, and wonder if I could ever get through these things in my lifetime.
With all the fascicles and updates to released volumes I'm a bit confused as to where one would start today with TAOCP.<p>If I wanted to give it an honest try, what do I buy?<p>Volume 1, 3rd edition + Volume 1, Fascicle 1?<p>If I get this right, fascicle 1 of Vol. 1 is used to replace/update the old MIX architecture used in TAoCP with the new MMIX. If so, what about volumes 2-4?
On a whim a few years ago I attended Knuth80[0], a symposium celebrating Knuth's 80th birthday in Piteå, northern Sweden. I traveled there by train from London and spent a few days listening to fascinating lectures and attending the inaugural performance of Fantasia Apocalyptica, performed by Jan Overduin on the wonderful new pipe organ in Piteå. I only had the opportunity to speak briefly with Knuth, but the whole thing (including the location in northern Sweden in winter!) was a wonderful experience, and should there be any further birthday symposiums I would heartily recommend them to anyone!<p>[0] <a href="https://cs.stanford.edu/content/contacting-donald-knuth/news17.html" rel="nofollow">https://cs.stanford.edu/content/contacting-donald-knuth/news...</a>
Since the pipe organ will be inevitably mentioned in the comments, I'm gonna plug the Youtube channel ‘Look Mum No Computer’, whose gear-crazy author in now apparently in the final stages of installing and patching up an organ in his seemingly interminable basement, after moving it from someone else's house: <a href="https://youtube.com/shorts/XGL3rskcQD0" rel="nofollow">https://youtube.com/shorts/XGL3rskcQD0</a><p>Said organ was built by its late owner not just <i>in</i> the house, but pretty much into the walls of the house, and as a result the thing had to be ripped out of there rather grotesquely, and then rewired again at the new place: <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=8PwwRR8deHk" rel="nofollow">https://youtube.com/watch?v=8PwwRR8deHk</a>
I am relatively unfamiliar with these books, but the fact that Knuth publishes them in “fascicles” is hilariously intriguing. I have a superficial understanding of Knuth’s character as a programmer but I get the impression that the work is portrayed in a folksy, arcane sort of way.<p>Am I far off?
As someone who perpetually abandons projects, I just admire that he has kept going with this for so long. It's a huge and daunting commitment to make, and the fact that he is 84 and has completed another book is impressive, even if he never finishes.
A math noobie here: I want to learn the TAOCP but the pre-req is Concrete Mathematics which I also find hard--it seems almost cryptic. Any ideas for a book before Concrete Mathematics? Thanks in advance.
“Is that a copy of Knuth?” She homes in on the top
shelf. “Hang on — volume four? But he only finished the
first three volumes in that series! Volume four’s been overdue for the past twenty years!”
So who is the target audience for this type of work? I mean if I want to learn more about something such as combinatorial algorithms, this doesn't seem like it'd be the right place to begin. I want to learn more about the things that I don't know, but at the same time, learning absolutely everything about a single category is typically more depth than I require.
“”Find a linear certificate of unsatisfiability for the flower snark clauses”<p>I wonder how long that will take to start showing up on interview questions.
A must read for the knuth's fans:<p><a href="https://javascript.plainenglish.io/heres-donald-knuth-s-advice-to-new-programmers-it-should-not-be-ignored-6963c0aba7aa" rel="nofollow">https://javascript.plainenglish.io/heres-donald-knuth-s-advi...</a>
Reading knuth was almost a don't meet your heroes moment.<p>I don't mind the mathematical rigour at all, I have benefited from it, but the way the books are structured is all over the shop.
I learned about the TAOCP in 2008 or even earlier. At that time, I already thought, I will not be able to have the first 4 Volumes complete.<p>Is there any hope that somebody will continue the work?