The Enduring Art of Computer Programming

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Thank you Dr. Knuth and happy birthday!

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No tribute to Knuth would be complete without the obligatory XKCD comic: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/donald_knuth.png

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Sorry Jeff, my bad with my the “speaking in the third person” thing. Thanks spoon for pointing it out. We’ll just blame it on my falsocondrilexia. (A made up brain disorder that accepts blame for me acting like an ass, in order to make me not feel quite so bad about acting like said ass).

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Jeff accepts your apology.

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Hmm Prof.Donald Knuth ,i didn’t really know much about him before reading this post, i guess he is like Einstein in the computer programming world .Happy birthday Donald,you rock!It is nice to know i share the same first name with a genius.Keep up the good work Jeff.

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Now all I can think about is how to turn the image of Don Knuth into a fold-in back cover.

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I also think Don would approve of this comic:

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Yay, happy birthday to professor Knuth!

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XKCD comics about Donald Knuth. Funny stuff …


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He pays a finder’s fee of $2.56 for any typographical errors or mistakes discovered in his books, because “256 pennies is one hexadecimal dollar” (wikipedia)

Humor in an informative way,maybe thats why he is so good at what he does.At least he knows the bottom line of life : to have fun .

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Looks like Google likes Knuth too:

https://www.google.com/#q=pi+potrzebie+in+mm
https://www.google.com/#q=furshlugginer+ngogn+in+litres

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A nice post Jeff
It may be a coincidence that i have searched and read about him and the seminal book Art of Computer programming related to refreshing ups with Algorithms. I never noticed that it’s his b’day. Thanks alot for remaining it.

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Just don’t send him a congratulatory email. He doesn’t use it.

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Dr. Knuth’s contributions to the field are endless, but personally I think it’s a shame that he feels that his Computer Science expertise somehow extends into the realm of politics:

http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/iaq.html

Regardless of political affiliation, this is the same kind of baseless preaching we get from the Hollywood elites.

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Thanks Frank. Someone had to say it. Dr. Knuth may be a brilliant computer scientist, but his “infrequently asked questions” are the same tired preaching you can get on any college campus in the country.

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I took up a hybrid course in business and computer programming. We didn’t even get to read anything that he wrote. Lessons were about making VB6 applications really fast.

Oh well. More stuff to read for later.

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Jeff accepts your apology.

Hahahaha! Brilliant!

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Knuth is great. His books are amazingly clear even to non-specialists. I’ve never taken a CS course in my life and I found his stuff completely readable and very helpful.

I also have the MAD DVD – it’s great, if you like MAD. The PDFs are also searchable!

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Knuth’s “Art of Computer Programming” was required reading in my first Computer Science class. I don’t think I’d be the developer I am today were it not for what I learned from that book.

Great stuff.

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Tim and Frank: I hope you realize that you just expressed an opinion,
which is exactly what Donald Knuth did, as well. You seem to be saying that because someone is an eminent Computer Scientist (or Hollywood actor, or whatever), one should not opine about politics.

Such position is wrong, on so many levels. For one thing, I don’t think you mind Ahnold (who actually seems to be a reasonable pol, at least part of the time). For another, it betrays arrogance, and a lack of proportion, to deny others of what one thinks is right for oneself. Frankly, the lack of ability for such symmetric moral reasoning seems to be an intellectual flaw of the conservative folk.