Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 357 posts

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

#151

Post by lupire »

kramarao wrote: post #32
Bayko wrote: post #2

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

I used them to implement a random number generator in an embedded system to generate morse code, for training ham radio operators. I also used him KMP algorithm for writing pattern matchers. I suspect that most of these algorithms have been implemented and available as libraries for people to use. The challenge of programming has moved from designing such isolated algorithms to modeling the problems, modularizing the…

This is also why MIT switched its intro to CS class from Scheme to Python ~15 years ago.

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

#152

Post by lupire »

klik99 wrote: post #67
Bayko wrote: post #2

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

Part 1 is the most "useless" - it's basically required reading to be able to read the rest of the book. There are a few sections in data structures that I read to actually apply (I can't remember the exact parts, but I remember pouring over the book), but mostly it's enjoyable if you like programming for programmings sake. If you think of programming as a practical means for achieving some end (job or creative pursui…

A great book is to be pored over with a pour-over.

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

#153

Post by lupire »

dyingkneepad wrote: post #110
Bayko wrote: post #2

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

I read selected parts of it while in the University, studying Computer Science. I think that is the more appropriate time for you to read such a book, since it gives you the basics. I read the section on Hash Tables while at work because one of our hash table implementations was exactly what he proposed in his book and there was no explanation on why some things were done, especially the choice of the hashing functio…

TAOCP is far far more than the basics.

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

#155

Post by lupire »

bcwarner wrote: post #56
Bayko wrote: post #2

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

The most use I've gotten out of it was when I had it on my bookshelf in my Zoom background while TAing a class I think. One of the head TAs recognized it and asked if I had actually read it, and I told him I managed to read through volume 1 once and not solve many of the problems, which took about 3 months reading ~10 pgs/day. He was still impressed, and I think it helped me get the head TA role after he graduated, a…

Shouldn't TA jobs be handed out based on you knowledge and teaching and management ability, not fashion prejudice?

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

#156

Post by melling »

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…

The origins of TeX from Knuth himself:

https://youtu.be/9IM_dqjBkIw

His books were the reason he started TeX.

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

#157

Post by commandlinefan »

moron4hire wrote: post #143
lupire wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You read a math book slowly, so you don't need whitespace for help skimming. Extra whitespace would make the huge books even huger. Beautiful formatting here refers to the text , not the whitespace.

Except everyone who talks about how to read the books successfully--including the books themselves--talk about jumping around in them in a way that requires a lot of skimming . I don't find the text in any other book I own to be insufficient, or even noticeably that different from Knuth's books (with the obvious exception of some fly-by-night print-on-demand stuff purchased off Amazon in recent years). It's an assert…

> everyone who talks about how to read the books successfully

I will be a counterexample: I read all three cover to cover, and seriously attempted every single exercise (although in some cases, "attempted" just meant "actually understand what he's asking, which in itself sometimes took me several days). I didn't skim or jump around at all.

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

#158

Post by andrepd »

moron4hire wrote: post #143
lupire wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You read a math book slowly, so you don't need whitespace for help skimming. Extra whitespace would make the huge books even huger. Beautiful formatting here refers to the text , not the whitespace.

Except everyone who talks about how to read the books successfully--including the books themselves--talk about jumping around in them in a way that requires a lot of skimming . I don't find the text in any other book I own to be insufficient, or even noticeably that different from Knuth's books (with the obvious exception of some fly-by-night print-on-demand stuff purchased off Amazon in recent years). It's an assert…

Subjectively, I like TAoCP's typography much better. But hey, that's just me.

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

#159

Post by commandlinefan »

Bayko wrote: post #2

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

> actually read these books AND found them useful ON THE JOB

I did read all three - it took me about three years to get through all three and (at least try to) work each exercise. Useful on the job? No, not really, but I can't think of a non-fiction book(s) I've enjoyed reading much more than these. All of the code examples are in assembler, and not just any assembler, his own imaginary assembler (but you can download a compiler and an emulator for it). I'd be hard-pressed to come up with anything that he covers here that's not already part of the standard library of any programming language you could possibly consider using - but it's still great reading, and illuminating in indirect ways.

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

#160

Post by toast0 »

giantg2 wrote: post #62
jahewson wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet significantly cheaper than Apple's Pro Stand.

I mean like how about using a cheaper book. Cookbooks are almost literally a dime a dozen at yard sales. Too bad phone books aren't what they used to be.

Printer paper is a good choice as well. Reams are quite sturdy and generally available in offices. You can titrate the height in very small steps if needed. And the stand is easy to reuse when it's no longer needed. Not as low cost as used cookbooks though.
Post reply on HN