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That's a great anecdote and makes we want to read TeX: The Program. I really think there's something in the 'jumping back and forth' of the reader that could b

That's a great anecdote and makes we want to read TeX: The Program. I really think there's something in the 'jumping back and forth' of the reader that could be leveraged, like if there was a way of recording, distributing, aggregating, analysing it etc.

EdwardCoffin 10y ago
It doesn't add that much to the above, but the now defunct Bookpool had a column where they asked various authors for lists of their favourite 10 computer books, and they asked Guy Steele [1]. His first entry was: Computers & Typesetting, Volumes A-E Boxed Set by Donald E. Knuth -- I'll read anything that Don Knuth writes, and he has written quite a bit, including Surreal Numbers and 3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated as well as the famous Art of Computer Programming series. But this five-volume set is my favorite. The two volumes titled (and sold separately) as The TeXbook and The METAFONT book are well-known, but what I really recommend to you are TeX: The Program and METAFONT: The Program, because these are simply the best-written, best-documented, best-debugged programs of their size ever published. They reward careful study. I've tried to read the source for TeX: The Program (I actually have the boxed set he mentions), but was impeded by my lack of knowledge of TeX. I keep meaning to get back to it. [1] Guy's list in archive.org: http://web.archive.org/web/20080422183814/http://www.bookpool.com/ct/184 http://web.archive.org/web/20080422183814/http://www.bookpoo...