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Knuth's Art of Computer Programming, V 4B, has gone into print

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Re: Knuth's Art of Computer Programming, V 4B, has gone into print

#301

Post by offByJuan »

cromwellian wrote: post #201
User23 wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> moving between EMacs panes Well, the editor wars are over folks. More seriously, Don Knuth is a treasure. One of the coolest things about computing science is how all the greats in the field are either alive, or within the living memory of people who are.

These are the photos my wife took at his home. https://www.quantamagazine.org/computer-scientist-donald-knu... Like the 5th picture down you can see him standing (he uses a standing desk!) and if you blow up the screen, you can see part of an emacs window on the left hand side. I believe he also was using emacs shell windows as well, but not 100% sure. Direct Link: https://d2r55xnwy6nx47.cloudfront.net/uploads/2020/0…

“The best way to communicate from one human being to another is through story,” Knuth said.

Great quote and great insight. Understanding how the brain works and is stimulated augments communication. Especially important for dry, theoretical subjects.

Re: Knuth's Art of Computer Programming, V 4B, has gone into print

#303

Post by lycopodiopsida »

carl_dr wrote: post #164
jjice wrote: post #150

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…

> I'm interested to see how the series progresses for the next 30 years. Donald is 84. And each time I’m reminded of that I get sad, it’s very unlikely we’ll get another 30 years of his work.

It reminds me of that Hokusai quote (japanese painter):

“From the age of 6 I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was 50 I had published a universe of designs. But all I have done before the the age of 70 is not worth bothering with. At 75 I'll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish and insects. When I am 80 you will see real progress. At 90 I shall have cut my way deeply into the mystery of life itself. At 100, I shall be a marvelous artist. At 110, everything I create; a dot, a line, will jump to life as never before. To all of you who are going to live as long as I do, I promise to keep my word. I am writing this in my old age. I used to call myself Hokusai, but today I sign my self 'The Old Man Mad About Drawing.’”

Re: Knuth's Art of Computer Programming, V 4B, has gone into print

#304

Post by tengwar2 »

smitty1e wrote: post #191
xwolfi wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

For the Christian, reading the Bible is internally transformative.

I did like the fact that he led a Bible study in January - on the Book of Numbers. Does that count as an addition to semi-numerical algorithms?

Re: Knuth's Art of Computer Programming, V 4B, has gone into print

#305

Post by icambron »

smugma wrote: post #282
hintymad wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also noticed smart people type really fast (if they can touch type) and can switch between multiple windows/tabs fast too. It's not because their fingers move faster than normal people, but because their mind moves smoothly so they can produce a long string of command with stopping to think. > as fast as any 20 year old. I I certainly hope so. Though I think it's more likely that Knuth can be as fast as other 20-ye…

One of the smartest people I met as an undergrad at Berkeley was a theoretical chemistry PhD student. He was an extremely slow typist, with mostly hunt and peck. It would be frustrating for me because it would be like 1/4 my comfortable speed (20 vs. 80 wpm?). But being slow there made him faster, because he’d spend a little more time before typing thinking about what to type.

I’ve always had the opposite experience. When I am unable to type well I am massively less effective. This happened when switched from emacs to vim, or got a new keyboard with a weird layout, or broke my thumb, or, hell, anytime I use a phone.

First there’s the cognitive overhead involved with the task itself, as opposed to letting your fingers do the work while you think about real stuff. Second, when you’re slow at typing, typing becomes the bottleneck more often, and your brain is sometimes idling waiting for your typing to catch up. Your brain has the hard part; it should always be the bottleneck. Third, typing fast gives you more options, because you don’t consider “how long will this take me to type out?” when considering different approaches to some immediate challenge. If opening a REPL and evaluating something is going to take you five minutes, you might not do it.

I suspect your friend was a fast worker despite being a slow typist. If he learned to touch-type, he could always have spent the same time thinking as he does now then less time and effort actually typing it.

Re: Knuth's Art of Computer Programming, V 4B, has gone into print

#307

Post by apricot »

giantg2 wrote: post #29
martincmartin wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once used them at work. I had a monitor that was too low, so putting a volume or two of Knuth under it raised it to the right height. That's the only time I've ever used them though.

Quite expensive for that use.

But you get to brag that you use TAOCP on a regular basis.

Re: Knuth's Art of Computer Programming, V 4B, has gone into print

#308

Post by belter »

314 wrote: post #257
cromwellian wrote: post #182

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. I started talk…

Just think how much more he could have created with vi ;)

He is only using EMacs as an OS....

Re: Knuth's Art of Computer Programming, V 4B, has gone into print

#310

Post by jfk13 »

cromwellian wrote: post #182

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. I started talk…

A colleague and I also had the delight of visiting him, quite a few years ago now. I'd been doing some unusual stuff with TeX, and had been in touch and showed him some examples of our work.

He had recently been working on 3:16 and showed us some of the original calligraphy that he had at home at the time.

What a lovely man, as well as being a multi-talented genius.

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