If he had used C instead of MMIX assembly language, someone would have made a very similar argument: "it's wasted on the vast number of people who aren't intere

If he had used C instead of MMIX assembly language, someone would have made a very similar argument: "it's wasted on the vast number of people who aren't interested in learning a low level language like C". Or, knowing HN, somebody would have called him dumb for not using Rust... Using C, he would have run into problems by page 200 or so, where he explains how coroutines are implemented. He would have to use some assembly language there anyway. You can complain about the choices Knuth made in writing TAOCP, or you can trust him and follow one of the great masters of computing (and of writing) along an amazing journey. Calling his choices dumb or stupid without understanding the tradeoffs he made, says more about you than Knuth. I, for one, have no problem with MMIX. The description of MMIX and its assembly language is interesting in itself (he wrote an amazing simulator to accompany the book). Studying those 50 or so pages is only a tiny part of the effort required to study TAOCP (3000+ pages and growing).