TAoCP is a delightfully written comprehensive encyclopedia of computer science for those interested in learning how and why stuff works; it is fundamental theor

TAoCP is a delightfully written comprehensive encyclopedia of computer science for those interested in learning how and why stuff works; it is fundamental theory at its best. Without having read it I would have spent my life without even knowing something like a biased base 3 numeric representation even existed (each digit of a number is represented by 1, 0, or -1 using a radix of 3 -- wonderful!). I have yet to find a practical application for much of what I've read, but maybe that's why it's got "art" right there in the title. If you're looking for some browser scripting code to cut and paste, you can go to Stack Overflow or Chat GPT to have your thinking done for you. If you want to understand what you're doing, pull out your dog-eared well-worn copy of TAoCP and spend some warm quality time with D. E. Knuth.