The 'Art' of Being Donald Knuth

http://mags.acm.org/communications/200807/?pm=2&zin=169&u1=texterity&pg=36&z=106

by bentoner • 18 years ago

32 18 18 years ago

mags.acm.org

simplegeek5• 18 years ago

Can you guys identify any books in Knuth's room? I just spotted Hackers Delight (on his left) :)

ovi256• 18 years ago

Well, I can see: "The C?????? Oxford English Dictionary", bellow the clock. "Graph Theory", just behind the humidifier thingy.

A pity the resolution is not better.

simplegeek5• 18 years ago

Ya, also there is Cormen's book & Unicode 1.0 (I guess--not sure) :)

nadim• 18 years ago

The Complete Oxford English Dictionary.

tjr3• 18 years ago

Knuth's own TeX series (TeXbook, Metafont book, etc) is on one of the shelves.

tjr3• 18 years ago

Also: what is that painting on the wall?

simplegeek5• 18 years ago

I also cannot figure that out but it seems amazing, too. Anyone, knows what this is (and artists' name)?

dragonquest• 18 years ago

Just above the paper he's reading I think - System Progamming by John Donovon.

simplegeek5• 18 years ago

Also this is amazing

Then a startup came to me and said 'Don, write compilers for us and we will take care of finding computers to debug them. Name your price.' I said, 'Oh, okay, $100000,' assuming that this was [outrageous]. The guys didn't blink. He agreed. I didn't blink either. I said 'I'm not going to do it I just thought that was an impossible number'. At that time I made the decision in my life that I was not going to optimize my income.

cpr• 18 years ago

The thing these interviews never really convey is the kindness and "gentlemanliness" of this great man. I didn't know him well (I worked at a start-up (Imagen) in the early 80's that was a spinoff of the TeX project), but saw him around Stanford and work to form a strong impression of a true giant among men, and not just because of his brainpower.

michael_dorfman• 18 years ago

It's great that the CACM decided to run these excerpts in print form, but for the full experience, you really ought to check out the videos at the People's Archive: http://www.peoplesarchive.com

hsmyers• 18 years ago

From the posts thus far, it's good to see the appreciation of this man. Not many of my computer books are as well-worn as my set of 'The Art'. His contribution of TeX alone would have assured his stature; just another side effect the good doctor. I just wish folks would leave him undisturbed so he can finish up v.4!!

The 'Art' of Being Donald Knuth

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