September 19, 2006
Who reads Knuth?
If I get one more email FROM THE DESK OF THE LOTTO CHANCELLOR I'm going to stick a fork in my eye and join Donald Knuth in signing off email altogether.
Hmm, Knuth... Knuth came up in conversation the other day!
Over IM I suggested to Bill we "knudge" a particular project in a particular direction.
"knudge? have you been excessively reading knuth?"
No... No, I haven't.
Which begs the question... Does anyone read Knuth? There's a consensus he's a great man, and I get warm fuzzies knowing he's a product of my alma mater. Yet, I personally can't think of anyone who's read his work.
I own volumes 1-3 of The Art of Computer Programming, and they look real impressive sitting on my bookshelf (just don't tell anyone they've never been opened). Same story for everyone I know.
I get the feeling Knuth's writings are becoming the "classical literature" of computer science - books everyone wants to have read, but nobody wants to read.
Then again, speaking as someone who's never read Knuth, I probably come off as a young, naive, arrogant bastard (as I do sometimes).
So I'm curious... I'd like to read Knuth. Have you read Knuth? What did you think? I could use some knudging.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Professor Knuth," Steve said. "I've read all of your books."
"You're full of shit," Knuth responded.
Posted by Josh Staiger at 08:05 AM
Comments
Posted by: Patrick Mueller September 19, 2006 10:35 AM | Permanent link
To paraphrase Paul Graham:
Many things people like, especially if they're young and ambitious, they like largely for the feeling of virtue in liking them. 99% of people reading (Knuth) are thinking "I'm reading (Knuth)" as they do it.
Having said that, I feel the need to express my sweeping superiority over you and your kin, since I have read the first chapter of the first Art book. *Ahem. Seriously though--it's pretty bad when it took me less time to make it half way through The Silmarillion than it did to summon the courage to read one chapter of Knuth. :) I swear I'll do it someday, though.
Posted by: Kurtiss Hare September 19, 2006 05:11 PM | Permanent link
Josh, I've spent some time looking at volume 2 (seminumerical algorithms) and here's what I've learned:
It's a bad idea to look for basic explanations in his books. It's a bad idea to just peruse his books.
Knuth is meant to be "read": It's an encyclopedia/reference. Before opening Knuth, you need to know what you're looking for.
For example, if you need to know about sorting double-linked lists (I just made that up), pick up volume 3 (I think). Among the mountain of information (theorems, references, algorithms, tec), you might pick up an algorithm or a reference to a paper that leads you somewhere else. Kindly put Knuth down and move on.
Knuth's books are references and thus should be treated as so
Posted by: didier September 20, 2006 02:59 PM | Permanent link
I will admit to wanting to have the Art books on my bookshelf, but will further admit to being too cheap to buy them. I also realize I'd probably not use them too much. Like Bill , I have too many books I've already bought that I've not finished.
I've perused the Art books in the past. I'm a true geek/nerd. I could read about sorting algorithms for longer than most without falling asleep. So, for now, I get my fix by perusing one of the books at B+N, perhaps every year or so. Although I think last time I looked they only had the 3 volume set, and it was shink-wrapped. Which makes it hard to peruse.