4 ms·

No offense to Knuth, who I'm sure is a great dude, but the fact that he of all people is releasing this as a book in 2011 is totally ludicrous.

michael_dorfman 16y ago
How so? I am sure that there might be some who would prefer to read a work as difficult (and intricately typeset) as TAOCP on a screen instead of paper, but I imagine they'd be a minority.
- kenjackson 16y ago
  Despite what some may say TAOCP is a very readable series of books. But they do require being read in hardcopy, at a table, with a pen(cil) and notepad. This isn't something you read on your Kindle while taking the Subway uptown.
  - mariuskempe 16y ago
    No offense again, but all of the replies to my comment are equally ludicrous. If it were digitally available, you could search and index it, text mine it, distribute it to people in poorer countries, carry it with you when you move a lot. These are all the obvious advantages of ebooks, and nothing about TAOCP makes it especially necessary for a digital version. To make an educated guess, the problem must be some part of Knuth's attitude to life - he spent a major chunk of his life designing a system to make things you type in from a computer look good on paper. Edit: to clarify, I'm not saying it shouldn't be on paper - freedom of choice! - I'm saying it should also be available digitally. And to the person who said that TAOCP is only a collector's item, you're completely ludicrous.
    - kenjackson 16y ago
      No offense again, but all of the replies to my comment are equally ludicrous. I beg to differ. While they may all have been ludicrous, they were not equally so.
      - mariuskempe 16y ago
        Yes, that's true. :-) I expect this comment will be downvoted as well.
        kenjackson 16y ago
        I brought you back to zero. :-)
sp332 16y ago
It's a collector's item: you would buy this book to match your other TAOCP books on the shelf.
- wglb 16y ago
  Well, that would be sort of hard. I have two sets. The first set is three volumes of the first edition. So the matching part would be a bit iffy.

michael_dorfman 16y ago

How so? I am sure that there might be some who would prefer to read a work as difficult (and intricately typeset) as TAOCP on a screen instead of paper, but I imagine they'd be a minority.

kenjackson 16y ago
Despite what some may say TAOCP is a very readable series of books. But they do require being read in hardcopy, at a table, with a pen(cil) and notepad. This isn't something you read on your Kindle while taking the Subway uptown.
- mariuskempe 16y ago
  No offense again, but all of the replies to my comment are equally ludicrous. If it were digitally available, you could search and index it, text mine it, distribute it to people in poorer countries, carry it with you when you move a lot. These are all the obvious advantages of ebooks, and nothing about TAOCP makes it especially necessary for a digital version. To make an educated guess, the problem must be some part of Knuth's attitude to life - he spent a major chunk of his life designing a system to make things you type in from a computer look good on paper. Edit: to clarify, I'm not saying it shouldn't be on paper - freedom of choice! - I'm saying it should also be available digitally. And to the person who said that TAOCP is only a collector's item, you're completely ludicrous.
  - kenjackson 16y ago
    No offense again, but all of the replies to my comment are equally ludicrous. I beg to differ. While they may all have been ludicrous, they were not equally so.
    - mariuskempe 16y ago
      Yes, that's true. :-) I expect this comment will be downvoted as well.
      - kenjackson 16y ago
        I brought you back to zero. :-)

sp332 16y ago

It's a collector's item: you would buy this book to match your other TAOCP books on the shelf.

wglb 16y ago
Well, that would be sort of hard. I have two sets. The first set is three volumes of the first edition. So the matching part would be a bit iffy.