Donald Knuth Quotes - Page 3

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• A mathematical formula should never be "owned" by anybody! Mathematics belong to God.

  Donald Knuth

  Science, Technology, Mathematics

  "Digital Typography". Book by Donald Knuth, 1999.

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• [The Euclidean algorithm is] the granddaddy of all algorithms, because it is the oldest nontrivial algorithm that has survived to the present day.

  Donald Knuth

  History, Algorithms, Present Day

  Donald E. Knuth (2014). “Art of Computer Programming, Volume 2: Seminumerical Algorithms”, p.550, Addison-Wesley Professional

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• I've never been a good estimator of how long things are going to take.

  Donald Knuth

  Long

  "The art of Don E. Knuth". Interview with Mark Wallace, www.salon.com. September 16, 1999.

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• When certain concepts of TeX are introduced informally, general rules will be stated; afterwards you will find that the rules aren't strictly true. In general, the later chapters contain more reliable information than the earlier ones do. The author feels that this technique of deliberate lying will actually make it easier for you to learn the ideas. Once you understand a simple but false rule, it will not be hard to supplement that rule with its exceptions.

  Donald Knuth

  Lying, Learning, Simple

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• TeX has found at least one bug in every Pascal compiler it's been run on, I think, and at least two in every C compiler

  Donald Knuth

  Running, Thinking, Two

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• The hardest thing is to go to sleep at night, when there are so many urgent things needing to be done. A huge gap exists between what we know is possible with today's machines and what we have so far been able to finish.

  Donald Knuth

  Sleep, Night, Machines

  "Donald Knuth on The Art of Computer Programming". Innovations Interview, www.informit.com. 1996.

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• My first program taught me a lot about the errors that I was going to be making in the future, and also about how to find errors. That's sort of the story of my life, making errors and trying to recover from them. I try to get things correct. I probably obsess about not making too many mistakes.

  Donald Knuth

  Mistake, Errors, Trying

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• Whenever the C++ language designers had two competing ideas as to how they should solve some problem, they said, "OK, we'll do them both". So the language is too baroque for my taste.

  Donald Knuth

  Ideas, Two, Taste

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• The designer of a new kind of system must participate fully in the implementation.

  Donald Knuth

  Design, Kind, Software

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• Meta-design is much more difficult than design; it's easier to draw something than to explain how to draw it.

  Donald Knuth

  Design, Easier, Difficult

  Donald Ervin Knuth (1986). “The METAFONTbook”, Addison-Wesley Professional

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• Programming is legitimate and necessary academic endeavour.

  Donald Knuth

  Academic, Endeavour, Programming

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• Any inaccuracies in this index may be explained by the fact that it has been prepared with the help of a computer.

  Donald Knuth

  May, Facts, Helping

  Donald Ervin Knuth (2008). “The Art of Computer Programming: Fundamental algorithms”

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• The important thing, once you have enough to eat and a nice house, is what you can do for others, what you can contribute to the enterprise as a whole.

  Donald Knuth

  Nice, House, Important

  Interview with Jack Woehr, Dr. Dobb's Journal, April 1996.

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• I remember that mathematicians were telling me in the 1960s that they would recognize computer science as a mature discipline when it had 1,000 deep algorithms. I think we've probably reached 500.

  Donald Knuth

  Thinking, Discipline, Algorithms

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• God is a challenge because there is no proof of his existence and therefore the search must continue.

  Donald Knuth

  Challenges, Proof, Existence

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• I can't be as confident about computer science as I can about biology. Biology easily has 500 years of exciting problems to work on. It's at that level.

  Donald Knuth

  Years, Levels, Computer

  Computer Literacy Bookshops Interview, 1993.

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• There's ways to amuse yourself while doing things and thats how I look at efficency.

  Donald Knuth

  Looks, Way

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• I decry the current tendency to seek patents on algorithms. There are better ways to earn a living than to prevent other people from making use of one's contributions to computer science.

  Donald Knuth

  People, Patents, Use

  "The Art of Computer Programming: Volume 3: Sorting and Searching". Book by Donald E. Knuth, 1973.

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• We should continually be striving to transform every art into a science: in the process, we advance the art.

  Donald Knuth

  Art, Strive, Process

  "Computer Programming as an Art". Communications of the ACM, Volume 17, Issue 12, dl.acm.org. December 1974.

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• It would be nice if we could design a virtual reality in Hyperbolic Space, and meet each other there.

  Donald Knuth

  Nice, Science, Reality

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• The sun comes up just about as often as it goes down, in the long run, but this doesn't make its motion random.

  Donald Knuth

  Running, Long, Sun

  Donald E. Knuth (2014). “Art of Computer Programming, Volume 2: Seminumerical Algorithms”, p.115, Addison-Wesley Professional

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• I define UNIX as 30 definitions of regular expressions living under one roof.

  Donald Knuth

  Expression, Definitions, Unix

  "Digital Typography". Book by Donald Knuth, 1999.

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• The manuals we got from IBM would show examples of programs and I knew I could do a heck of a lot better than that. So I thought I might have some talent.

  Donald Knuth

  Might, Example, Talent

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• For his major contributions to the analysis of algorithms and the design of programming languages, and in particular for his contributions to the "art of computer programming" through his well-known books in a continuous series by this title.

  Donald Knuth

  Art, Book, Design

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• In fact, my main conclusion after spending ten years of my life working on the TEX project is that software is hard. It's harder than anything else I've ever had to do.

  Donald Knuth

  Years, Facts, Projects

  "All Questions Answered". Notices of the AMS 49 (3), March 2002.

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