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Current draft of The Art of Computer Programming pre-fascicle 6a [ps]

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Re: Current draft of The Art of Computer Programming pre-fascicle 6a [ps]

#21
post #2

There's some speculation about where the next breakthroughs will come from at the end of the chapter; it will be interesting to look back in 10-20 years and see if Knuth was correct.

A surprising tidbit: Knuth believes that P=NP is true, but the algorithm to solve NP is unknowable - footnote on page 1 (pdf page 9).

Proponents of RSA, DHE crypto - take note.

Re: Current draft of The Art of Computer Programming pre-fascicle 6a [ps]

#23
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, he has accepted electronic versions of his book. It's unfortunate that all but the pdf versions don't meet his standards: "Note: However, I have personally approved ONLY the PDF versions of these books. Beware of glitches in the ePUB and Kindle versions, etc., which cannot be faithful to my intentions because of serious deficiencies in those alternative formats." I prefer electronic books simply because they ta…

To be fair, books on PDF are electronic books. Kindles don't handle them well, but tablets do. Also, I agree with him! ePUB and Kindle markup/typesetting just don't look as good yet, and they certainly can't handle complex mathematics with any amount of grace.

> books on PDF are electronic books. Kindles don't handle them well, but tablets do.

Pdfs on current generation kindles (300dpi) look great, actually, as long as they are computer-generated. Scanned documents can be hit-or-miss, though.

Re: Current draft of The Art of Computer Programming pre-fascicle 6a [ps]

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One click to download, two double-clicks (one for the gzip, one for the PS) to open on my Mac.

I can automate it for you... :)

I wasn't complaining that this was particularly onerous (in fact, I am always pleased how easily PostScript files open on Macs)!

Re: Current draft of The Art of Computer Programming pre-fascicle 6a [ps]

#25
For anyone curious, this section is on SAT solving. It's section 7.2.2.2 of TAOCP, and is over 300 pages long. Pretty thorough for a section of backtrack, within a section on generating all possibilities, within a full chapter on combinatorial searching.

Re: Current draft of The Art of Computer Programming pre-fascicle 6a [ps]

#27

Chapter 7 will eventually fill at least four volumes . . . assuming that I'm able to remain healthy. Apparently TAOCP has a lot in common with the Wheel of Time. I have a ton of respect for these huge, decades-long, life-defining projects and the people who undertake them (Robert Caro's LBJ biography is another example.) So the end of this project always receding further into the distance makes me wistful, even if th…

My intuition based on what I've seen and read is that a lot of the later chapters of the "12 chapter book about compilers" are in draft form, having accumulated over the 50 years since Knuth started writing. As Knuth notes in the fascicle, SAT has proven to be the core of the book (and thus Combinitorial Algorithms). In the beginning, it looked like the hard problems be limited to things relative to memory. It turns out that the hard problems involve pruning spaces larger than the universe.

Re: Current draft of The Art of Computer Programming pre-fascicle 6a [ps]

#29

ps.gz? It's 2015!

I am not sure how it is related to 2015. I actually prefer a ps file that I can render to a PDF easily instead a Javascript heavy messy website where everything is distracting you from the content. On the top of that Knuth invented Tex to be able to write scientific documentations with ease[1]. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeX

I vastly prefer HTML with searchable text, easy copy-pasting capability, easy indexability, etc. to PDF with its outdated printed-page metaphor.

On the other hand, it's Knuth and TAOCP, so I can't really complain much.

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