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The Art of Computer Programming - eBook
- tjr 13y agoKnuth says: For many years I've resisted temptations to put out a hasty electronic version of The Art of Computer Programming, because the samples sent to me were not well made. But now, working together with experts at Mathematical Sciences Publishers, my publishers and I are launching an electronic edition that meets the highest standards. We've put special emphasis into making the search feature work well. Thousands of useful "clickable" cross-references are also provided --- from exercises to their answers and back, from the index to the text, from the text to important tables and figures, etc. The first fascicle can now be ordered from Pearson's InformIT website, and we expect to release thousands of additional pages next year. http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/news.html http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/news.html
- mscottmcbee 13y agoI have the first 4 books, but reading that makes me want to get it as an e-book, as well.
- goggles99 13y ago>For many years I've resisted temptations to put out a hasty electronic version of The Art of Computer Programming, because the samples sent to me were not well made Not well made? It's a book that is a PDF at some point before it hits printing presses. What is there to make at all? The kindle has been out for how many years? how is the book so different when reading it on an e-ink display? He mentions that shortcuts were added, but still - how is it worse than a printed book (there are no links there either). This seems disingenuous.
- jeremysmyth 13y agoPDFs and ebook readers are not a good mix. PDFs are designed to look the same on every device and on paper, and that doesn't work well when you've got bigger and smaller readers. A well-made ebook—something that's been made as an ebook—reflows well regardless of the form factor of the device (and there are many). Also, most devices have zoom/text size capability, and PDFs don't play nicely with that, nor do they really work well with image placement on screen. When you bear in mind that a weighty technical tome like TAoCP has lots of equations, and equations use lots if images, it all gets pretty ugly when you're stuck with a fixed-form PDF.
- mietek 13y agoI'm sure Knuth will be glad to know any customer can purchase TAoCP from Pearson/InformIT in any electronic format that he wants so long as it is PDF. Additionally, Pearson/InformIT have chosen to enhance the layout of each page by discreetly reminding the reader of their full name.
- coldtea 13y agoStill, all those arguments are moot, since the book released now is just a PDF.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- mikevm 13y ago> PDFs and ebook readers are not a good mix. I beg to differ. Maybe PDFs and small-screen eInk readers are not a good mix. For anything technical (computer science/maths) I only buy an eBook if there's a PDF version available (a PDF that looks like the print edition). I've had nothing but bad experience with reflowable formats such as EPUB with technical books. Equations and graphs are stored as low resolution images, any complex layout (floats for example) has to be turned into a strictly linear flow, etc... A vector PDF, on the other hand, is infinitely scalable, so you can zoom in on graphs and equations without any loss of quality.
- Guvante 13y agoWhy is it disingenuous? Have you looked into the complexities of eBooks? You have to not only figure out what format to release in, but also deal with various screen formats and linkages. Sure you can release a version of the master file relying on the software's search feature and make your user deal with the formatting, but it will look bad in nearly every setting. Note that this is especially true of ebooks which don't have responsive displays and need to be formated for to display as you would expect. You cannot simply throw a PDF with arbitrary dimensions and get good results.
- JonnieCache 13y agoProbably best not to argue with Donald Knuth about typesetting.
- cema 13y agoWell, an ebook experience is about much, much more than just typesetting. (See eg some comments in this discussion.)
- retr0rocket 13y agoyou realize you are arguing with the creator of latex about typesetting for a book right. put up your credentials or shut up.
- wonderzombie 13y agoDisingenuous? Maybe you're unaware of why Knuth invented TeX in the first place: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeX#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeX#History. It sounds to me like Knuth wanted something that wasn't just a straight up text dump of his book. If you're going to bother exporting your book to an interactive format, it makes sense to do it in such a way that it takes advantage of that format.
- bjz_ 13y agoKnuth loves his type-setting. He created TeX for crying out loud! I'm sure he detests what epub readers do to his works. And I'm sure he is no fan of how pdfs look on e-readers either.
- vijucat 13y ago> It's a book that is a PDF at some point before it hits printing presses. What is there to make at all? The kindle has been out for how many years? how is the book so different when reading it on an e-ink display? Just anecdotal information : my Kindle regularly reports the infamous "Low memory" error and closes down the book when I try to read my 8 MB copy of "Programming in Scala, 2nd Edition". It definitely detracts from the reading experience, especially knowing upfront that you can read only a few pages before you hit the dreaded error. I suppose Knuth's book would be equally, or more, "heavy" and the Kindle would choke on the pdf versions.
- banachtarski 13y agoIf you truly believe what you wrote, you don't know Knuth.
- nutate 13y agoSomeone has not read many mathematical books on a Kindle (or even PDFs on an iPad), let alone seen the intricate typesetting of TAoCP. For an epub the configurable font size alone wreaks havoc with mathematical typesetting, and converting them to pixelated versions fails as screen resolutions go to higher and higher DPI. It's a monster of a problem, which still isn't solved. As good as TeX/LaTeX is at handling paper sizes, the screen sizes / DPIs / pagination / font sizes of eReaders is a far more difficult platform to target.
- thrill 13y agoFWIW, it's cheaper at Google Play: $9.99
- myko 13y agoLink: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Donald_E_Knuth_Art_of_Computer_Programming_Volume_?id=56LNfE2QGtYC https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Donald_E_Knuth_A... edit: apparently this isn't the correct version, my mistake!
- leeoniya 13y agothe description paragraphs wrap mid-word in IE and FF. fascinating.
- Stratoscope 13y agoTheir stylesheet https://play.google.com/static/client/css/2587577817-lowlife_css_ltr.css https://play.google.com/static/client/css/2587577817-lowlife... has these styles in it: .multicol-column { -ms-word-break: break-all; word-break: break-all; word-break: break-word; } Very strange!
- tjr 13y agoThat is not the same book that the publisher lists as being offered in eBook form. I wonder if that is in fact not the same new eBook format that Knuth wrote about having approved?
- delinka 13y agoHeadline links to Volume 1, Fascicle 1. You have linked to Volume 4, Fascicle 4. Also, your like doesn't appear to be an eBook.
- lightblade 13y agoIs Google Play in PDF? I think the link from OP offers ebook in PDF, which I can read from iBooks. Oddly enough, it's not published on iBooks.
- systems 13y agowho should read those book, i know for sure they are not for the average IT/Programmer guy who is the right audience, and what would be a prerequisite reading
- mrcarlosrendon 13y agoHe starts at the beginning with math and works his way up. Your average IT/programmer guy will probably not have read this book, but it covers all the basics. Think of it as a replacement for a CS degree or at least the lower division courses.
- Jtsummers 13y agoI liked the books as references. I really only worked through most of Volume 1. followed by a detour into Concrete Mathematics. I have made frequent use of Volume 2 and Volume 3 as reference volumes. In college they were invaluable when professors selected some awful textbooks by providing explanations of certain algorithms and concepts and data structures.
- ballstothewalls 13y agoI recently graduated with a degree in math but not much programming experience (I am pretty familiar with Mathematica but nothing else). I was thinking about picking up an intro to CS book to begin learning CS. Would this book be good for this? Should I even bother with CS theory or just jump into using a language?
- Scriptor 13y agoThis is definitely not usable as an early intro to CS book, as it's pretty dense. There's a wide variety of introductory material that you can pick from, depending on your interests (what kind of stuff are you interested in doing). But TAOCP is aimed at someone a bit more advanced. Since you have a math background though I think you could give it a shot and see how far you get.
- nicolethenerd 13y agoCan't speak to this particular book, as I haven't read it, but the best starting point for you depends what you want to learn CS for - do you want to build apps, or do research, or dabble in a bunch of topics just for the sake of learning, or something else entirely? The basics of CS "theory" (ie. Big O notation, searching/sorting algorithms, etc) are useful for any programmer - but beyond that, there are many directions you can take.
- Zolomon 13y agoRead this: http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html -- think most will agree with me.
- recuter 13y agoThese are HN favorites, along with K&R - I wouldn't recommend any of them to beginners no matter what their background is. Instead I'd suggest a good succinct explanation of Big O notation to be digested and promptly forgotten (anybody who studied calculus should have intuition for it anyway, it just nicely ties in to the "cost" of the code they'll produce) and straight to scripting in Python with them. :)
- adiM 13y agoIs there a sample chapter or section available. I normally like to see how an ebook containing math looks like on the different devices before buying.
- sampo 13y agoSee the other comments. If the result pleases Knuth, it probably is good enough for you, too.
- brudgers 13y agoFor context: Knuth created TeX.
- jamesgeck0 13y agoDid Knuth read it on a 7-inch screen, or is the font going to be uncomfortably tiny without a lot of zooming and panning?
- Jtsummers 13y agohttp://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/fasc1.ps.gz http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/fasc1.ps.gz That's the postscript version of an unmaintained version. You can probably convert it to pdf and it ought to be similar (sans links, errata fixes and other changes) to the purchasable version with respect to the math layout.
- Jtsummers 13y agoTo late to edit, picked up the ebook, compared it to the linked document, pretty much the same if you want to see how the typesetting looks. The ebook version is a pdf of the book with hyperlinks connecting a number of text locations making it easy to go from code to description to whatever else.
- rinon 13y agoI can't wait until the rest of the volumes are offered. This particular volume is just a small supplement.
- forestgood 13y agoIf you are learning to program in Rails, www.hackhands.com will be a great resource. It is a real time expert marketplace where you can instantly connect with an expert (Uber for programmers). If you are a Rails programmer, sign up to become an expert today so you can get paid to help others and build your reputation.
- r-s 13y agoI filled out their survey and it only cost me $11.xx.
- libria 13y agoWait, I thought the whole point of this book was occupy space on my shelf in a highly visible area. Can they at least include a dust cover so I can subtly project my latent leetness?
- jclem 13y agoFYI, this is just a PDF. It's not in ePub or mobi formats.
- jclem 13y agoThis link is only for a tiny section of "The Art of Computer Programming".
- serf 13y agoWhile i'm glad about taocp being more available, my experience with Pearson and their ebook systems (due to their grasp on academia) quickly made me stop considering the purchase.
- wiT0 13y agoThis is probably OT, but how much is MIX/MMIX still used in the new books coming out? Volume1 had MIX code for everything, and IIRC by Volume3 it wasn't as pervasive. Does Volume4 have MMIX code for all algorithms presented?
- chj 13y agoMisleading title. This is only a tiny section of TAOCP.
- tjr 13y agoWhat I really wanted to share was Knuth's announcement on his own website, which is that (1) this first small chunk of TAOCP is available now in eBook form, and (2) much more of TAOCP will be released in eBook form next year. Linking to Knuth's news.html page seemed wrong, since it's not a static link to this topic, so I linked to the current product offering, and then posted a comment here with more details. No misleading intended, but I apologize for it coming across that way.