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Ask HN: Is Knuth's TAOCP worth the time and effort?

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Re: Ask HN: Is Knuth's TAOCP worth the time and effort?

#111

Post by mschaef »

DonHopkins wrote: post #72
aestetix wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do know that Knuth is a devout Lutheran, right?

And that certainly doesn't mean the bible doesn't subjugate women and condone slavery and child murder (which you can easily verify by reading it yourself), it simply means he's steered clear of addressing those points (which is a pity). His primary interest lies in the patterns, structures, and the mathematical beauty of the scriptures, rather than in theological or moral interpretations, which are still there and d…

> His primary interest lies in the patterns, structures, and the mathematical beauty of the scriptures, rather than in theological or moral interpretations,

Knuth hasn't written much about theology, but he has written some. How much of it have you read? Reading it myself, I don't get the impression he's at all uninterested in the theological or moral implications of scripture. (But I do get the impression he's used the tools of his trade in his public presentations on the subject.)

Re: Ask HN: Is Knuth's TAOCP worth the time and effort?

#112

Post by wiglaf1979 »

ralferoo wrote: post #85
AeroNotix wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wanna sell it?

Weirdly, probably not. I know if I sold it, then I'd suddenly get the urge to read it. Also, it's really heavy (I'd say at least over 1kg), so by the time I sold it at less than the current price because it's no longer new (also mine is 1-4A, the current edition is 1-4B) and paid postage to package and ship it somewhere, it's probably not really worth the effort.

Not sure of your location but if you are mailing materials like this in the USA it's really cheap. USPS Media Mail.

https://about.usps.com/notices/not121/not121_tech.htm

I've used it to buy/sell large tomes like this and it is really cheap ship things this way. It's not the speediest of delivery methods.

Re: Ask HN: Is Knuth's TAOCP worth the time and effort?

#113

Post by devchix »

I bought a copy after graduating, having seen the serious-looking tomes on the shelves of many TAs and serious people. I was not a very good programmer and I thought possession of this thing would confer a magic aura that would make me look smart and maybe within its pages were incantations I could learn that made me deserve the appearance. I ventured probably past the first 25 pages. This volume and books like it are not for me, I just want to know how to do things, and a deeper understanding for me comes from doing and breaking stuff many times, over time.

Re: Ask HN: Is Knuth's TAOCP worth the time and effort?

#114

Post by padjo »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #109

The fact that it's not called The Art of Software Engineering is interesting. If computer programmer was a good enough title for Knuth and Thompson then it's good enough for me.

I think software engineering encompasses a lot more than implementing algorithms. It’s a very different practice to computer science, which is probably what Knuth would call himself these days.

Re: Ask HN: Is Knuth's TAOCP worth the time and effort?

#115

Post by [deleted] »

gpderetta wrote: post #52
svat wrote: post #30

A little bit of history about the book series may help understand what is in it. In 1956, Knuth graduated high school and entered college, where he encountered a computer for the first time (the IBM 650, to which the series of books is dedicated). He took to programming like a fish to water, and by the time he finished college in 1960, he was a legendary programmer, single-handedly writing several compilers on par wi…

Thanks for the great comment. It made me desire again to buy the books. But I know they will just sit on a shelf mostly unread.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Is Knuth's TAOCP worth the time and effort?

#116

Post by philomath_mn »

ralferoo wrote: post #70
gpderetta wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the great comment. It made me desire again to buy the books. But I know they will just sit on a shelf mostly unread.

I've wanted to buy these since the late 90s when I used to enjoy thinking about algorithms in the abstract, but never bought them because at the start of my career I felt quite poor and it didn't seem like a good use of my money. In 2015, I decided I was no longer poor and should buy the box-set as a treat. I set aside time to read a chapter in the first week after it arrived, but realised that it would take years to…

Don't feel too bad -- I strongly believe that 99.99% of the copies of TAOCP are never read beyond the first chapter.

I'd love to own them and be the kind of person to read them, but I know I would also struggle to give them the proper attention (not with the hundred other books to read on my shelf).

Re: Ask HN: Is Knuth's TAOCP worth the time and effort?

#117

Post by commandlinefan »

I read the first three volumes and at least attempted all of the exercises. I got the easy ones, made some progress on the harder ones, and at least understood the "impossible" ones. These books are written on the assumption that you're going to work all of the exercises - I don't think that if you just read them you'll get a lot out of them.

I really enjoyed working through them - I keep meaning to get around to volume 4, but can't seem to find the time to do so.

Re: Ask HN: Is Knuth's TAOCP worth the time and effort?

#118

Post by rramadass »

svat wrote: post #30

A little bit of history about the book series may help understand what is in it. In 1956, Knuth graduated high school and entered college, where he encountered a computer for the first time (the IBM 650, to which the series of books is dedicated). He took to programming like a fish to water, and by the time he finished college in 1960, he was a legendary programmer, single-handedly writing several compilers on par wi…

Excellent write-up! Should be stickied as "bestof" or something.

Re: Ask HN: Is Knuth's TAOCP worth the time and effort?

#119

Post by rramadass »

rwmj wrote: post #65
svat wrote: post #30

A little bit of history about the book series may help understand what is in it. In 1956, Knuth graduated high school and entered college, where he encountered a computer for the first time (the IBM 650, to which the series of books is dedicated). He took to programming like a fish to water, and by the time he finished college in 1960, he was a legendary programmer, single-handedly writing several compilers on par wi…

I would add that one thing which is very relevant today but not covered much is memory hierarchies and parallel/distributed programming. For that you might want to accompany TAOCP with one of the heavyweight teaching books on Parallel Algorithms.

> For that you might want to accompany TAOCP with one of the heavyweight teaching books on Parallel Algorithms.

Any recommendations/suggestions?

Re: Ask HN: Is Knuth's TAOCP worth the time and effort?

#120

Post by Koshkin »

secondcoming wrote: post #29
adastra22 wrote: post #3

Your milage will vary. I got zero value from the books. They do make a good doorstop though.

Same. I bought physical copies years ago but ended up giving them away. The main problem is that algorithm examples are specified in a fake machine code. It’s not that useful when things can just be Googled now.

Well, the Turing machine is also “fake.” It is used for some analytical research. Similarly, Knuth uses his MIX for the analysis of algorithms.
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