Don Knuth
Don Knuth
Donald Knuth is the Professor of The Art of Computer Programming at Stanford University. He is the author of the multi-volume TheArtOfComputerProgramming (only 3 volumes have been written so far...).
He is considered one of the premier computer scientists alive today, as well as an exceptional programmer. He wrote the seminal typesetting system TeX using a style of programming he called LiterateProgramming. Patterns is to design what Literate Programming is to code.
-- ToddCoram
Recipient of 1974 TuringAward.
Don's home page is at http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/
As of 2004-07-20, google search on "Don" yields Knuth's home page as the first hit (!) Still true 2006-09-14. No longer true as of June 2007; now he's #10, behind DonBox among other things.
The fundamental paper on LR parsing is by Knuth 1965, but because of the size of tables, not made practical until Korenjak in 1969. (From TheDragonBook)
Don pretty much founded the field of algorithmic analysis, and invented many of the mathematical techniques required for such (as partially explained in his co-authored book ConcreteMathematics), which is why his 3-volume TheArtOfComputerProgramming has no equal -- but contrary to popular mythos:
Quotes:
Isn't he the director from "All Dogs Go To Heaven"? Oh, sorry, that was Don Bluth ;-)
I don't know what he looks like but he's a TeX-nical type who's famous for his ARTistic impressions OF various ways to do COMPUTER stuff, like PROGRAMMING. Or maybe he's really the same guy as BLUTH, and he's working on sequels I, II, and III. The rest of the series hasn't been finished yet.
He's also interested in LiterateProgramming, SelfDocumentingCode. And he plays organ in church. [My understanding is that he has an organ built into his house, so that saying that he "play organ in church" is rather like saying, he programs at work. Correct me if I'm wrong.]
I once heard he doesn't have a PipeOrgan built into his house, but instead a house built around his PipeOrgan. :-) There is more about his organ on http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/organ.html - See also ProgrammersAndPipeOrgans.
I had no idea he was so Rabelasian!
This week, I attended the first of a series of DonKnuthMitLectures. For any of you who are near Cambridge, they continue at MIT this fall and are readily accessible. The lectures are netcast as well, if the link isn't accessible from DonKnuthMitLectures, I'll post it here if anyone is interested.
It was, for an old codger like me who views Don as a demi-god, awe-inspiring to simply be in the same space as him - whether or not you find the topic interesting. The setting for these lectures is informal and relatively intimate; it is easy to talk with each other and with Don before and after his lecture.
For me, since this is a topic that I also find profoundly important, it makes me appreciate how fortunate I am to live in this city (Boston) at this time. I know of no other city in the world that could manage this kind of synergy.
-- TomStambaugh
Since Knuth lives here in Silicon Valley (and he's not a recluse, he has given open monthly talks for many years and shows up at many local events, etc), I fail to see what the above really has to do with the Boston area, since the obvious answer to your implied question would be "Palo Alto!" Both areas have these kinds of speakers and that kind of synergy. My understanding is that there are a small number of other spots in the world that one could say the same thing about.
When he tests the microphone, he says "Testing, 0 1 0 1 0 1..."
At his first lecture, he said that he would give six - because he had six jokes. We'd just heard the first. -- TomStambaugh
He's also the popularizer of SurrealNumbers, if I remember correctly. -- PanuKalliokoski
I think the appropriate mic-test would go "testing, testing, 01, 10, 11 ..." -- BelTorak
Well, I hate to get all pedantic and Sound Engineer Geek on you, but the point of the " ... one, two, one, two" in the "testing testing" sentence would be to generate some wideband signals to check-out the acoustics of the venue.
Therefore a simple short binary sequence 00 01 10 11 will not suffice. Maybe a LinearFeedbackShiftRegister is required to produce a long pseudo-random sequence.
Ergo, "Testing, testing, 1 + x^14 + x^15" might work better.
-- RikSagar
Where would one find that odd eyewear worn by DonKnuth? The link on his webpage is dead.
Well, the text on DonKnuth's site says this:
I suppose I'll do that. Still, I hate those unwired shops :)
So, what do you people think about those glasses? They give Mr. Knuth a distinctive look, but I wonder how commoners, especially younger commoners, would look in those. Maybe they'd make one look older..
Also, anybody wanna pick up the phone and call them? Perhaps they have some more information on the glasses...
One of the few computer scientists who has published in MadMagazine?. At age 19, he wrote an article titled The Potrzebie System of Weights and Measurements.
ExternalLinks?
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