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Donald Knuth turns 80, seeks problem-solvers for The Art of Computer Programming
- the-dude 9y agoA /. article on HN. How cute.
- Lxr 9y ago> I fear that the most probable hypothesis is that nobody has been sufficiently motivated to check these things out carefully as yet. For some motivation, you might still get a check from Knuth if you find an error. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knuth_reward_check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knuth_reward_check
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- jimhefferon 9y agoIt is not a real check. It is for putting on your wall.
- zakk 9y agoFew people would cash it, anyway.
- coldacid 9y agoThat's why he switched away from real cheques.
- tcheard 9y agoUhhh no, he switched away from real cheques because of bank fraud: https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/news08.html https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/news08.html (this page seems to have certificate issues)
- walshemj 9y agoI am getting a cert error on this page one would hav ehoped that Stanford would not have problems with certs ;-)
- tzakrajs 9y agoI am pretty sure they get unlimited free certificates from Incommon :D
- tgsovlerkhgsel 9y agohttps://www-cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/news08.html https://www-cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/news08.html seems to have the desired content, minus certificate error.
- jimktrains2 9y agoWell, that's because our banking system is terrible and because showing off a knuth check is worth more than cashing it, people shared pictures of said checks which allowed check fraud.
- Waterluvian 9y agoDon't people cash cheques by taking photos of them? Or is that a Canadian thing? (Ie. Can't you do both?)
- Redoubts 9y agoYes
- pkaye 9y agoYou can do both. Many banks now let you take pictures of the check using your cellphone to cash them out.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- andrewjrangel 9y agoI am sure this is controversial, but how many people have actually read these books? It's unfortunate because they are held in high regard, but the impact seems reduced for what it could be. I definitely could be wrong. I would love to at least peruse through them, but they seems to be hard to find as a full set at a decent price.
- tptacek 9y agoI don't "read" "them", but I dive into sections haphazardly and read them for pleasure; they're invariably rewarding. Like a textbook, you can (and probably should) build a syllabus out of parts of the books, rather than plowing through them in a straight line.
- tzs 9y agoYou almost certainly already know this, but this is a good place to mention it for those who might not: when reading these books for pleasure or personal interest, as opposed to just trying to get an answer to "I need to do X...what should I do?", don't overlook earlier editions. These books are not like too many textbooks today, where new editions are largely minor tweaks and maybe some changed exercises in order to make it harder for students to get by with used copies from prior years. With Knuth, a new edition means there have been many very significant changes. Whole new algorithms are added, and older ones are dropped. For example, the section on arbitrary precision integer multiplication in Volume II underwent major changes from 1st to 2nd edition, and even bigger changes from 2nd to 3rd edition. If you just need to implement arbitrary precision multiplication, 3rd edition is for you. But if arbitrary precision multiplication is something that is interesting enough to you that you are actually studying it for fun, you'll probably want all three editions of Volume II.
- wglb 9y agoAdditionally, the difficulty points on some problems changed as new proofs were discovered. In particular, Fermat's last theorem went from M50 (math required, Research problem) to HM45 (Higher math required, more than a team project but less than a Research problem). Additionally, somewhere along the way, the marvelous tape sorting fold out pages have dissappeared from the Sorting and Searching volume.
- mathgenius 9y agoIs volume 4, fasicle 6 available for download, or do we need to buy the book itself? I'm very interested in SAT solvers, as this has deep connections to statistical mechanics and condensed matter physics.
- curuinor 9y agoknuth only touches on the condensed matter (survey, beliefprop) in like one section in the whole book, i recall. beautiful presentation, nothing about, say, the d1RSB and s1RSB transition or anything like that. try montanari's book
- mathgenius 9y agoYes I have montanari's book.
- svat 9y agoIt is independently available as a paperback, but also the "pre-fascicle" (draft version) is available for download: http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/fasc6a.ps.gz http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/fasc6a.ps.gz or click on 6A at http://www.cs.utsa.edu/~wagner/knuth/ http://www.cs.utsa.edu/~wagner/knuth/ specifically: http://www.cs.utsa.edu/~wagner/knuth/fasc6a2015.09.23.pdf http://www.cs.utsa.edu/~wagner/knuth/fasc6a2015.09.23.pdf His programs (SAT solvers) are also available on his site at https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/programs.html https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/programs.html (They are in CWEB and you'll have to use cweave and ctangle to read and run those programs respectively; if you just want to read I've typeset them here: https://github.com/shreevatsa/knuth-literate-programs/tree/1b86fdc/programs https://github.com/shreevatsa/knuth-literate-programs/tree/1...) Knuth has also given a couple of talks about satisfiability around the time he wrote the book: - https://www.pathlms.com/siam/courses/3028/sections/4140/video_presentations/31340 https://www.pathlms.com/siam/courses/3028/sections/4140/vide... (July 2016, at SIAM Annual Meeting) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4lhrVPDUG0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4lhrVPDUG0 (December 2016, at Brown University) Look at https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/news16.html#lectures https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/news16.html#lectures for slides and handouts from these talks.
- utopcell 9y agoFor people that complain that TAOCP is too expensive: All volumes can be freely read on Safari books, which is free if you are an ACM member.
- wodenokoto 9y ago50 usd for a hard cover text book isn't exactly expensive https://www.amazon.com/Art-Computer-Programming-Vol-Fundamental/dp/0201896834/ref=pd_sim_14_5?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0201896834&pd_rd_r=48VDSXZWRGFPJFX7ARX8&pd_rd_w=aW0lg&pd_rd_wg=aM220&psc=1&refRID=48VDSXZWRGFPJFX7ARX8 https://www.amazon.com/Art-Computer-Programming-Vol-Fundamen...
- utopcell 9y agoAgreed.