I've spent some time implementing my own multi-precision integer library, and I've used TAoCP as a reference for that, but not otherwise. From this (admittedly

I've spent some time implementing my own multi-precision integer library, and I've used TAoCP as a reference for that, but not otherwise. From this (admittedly limited) data point, I'd say it's a useful reference if you're working on implementing some of the tricky algorithms contained therein, but you'll need to work hard for it. The code is all assembler (a dialect Knuth invented for the book; I think it predates structured programming), so you'll need the proofs to even understand what's going on. I'm not sure how much benefit you'll derive from just reading it through without digging into the problems, but I haven't done it.