Since we are about to end the month, we will again honor a person or
individual who made a great impact on technology. This time, we will
give tribute to a man who has given so much to the open source
movement, particularly in the field of computer science. Some think of
him as more important than Linus Torvalds or Richard M. Stallman. But
some may have never heard about him, because he is not a typical
celebrity or billionaire hacker. Although, wealthy and famous
programmers who have already reached the pinnacle of success
definitely have high respect for this man who's name is Donald Knuth.
He is our `Geek of the Month', and we are going to present to you some
interesting facts about his life, or rather his legend.
Donald Ervin Knuth was born on January 10, 1938, in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. Author of d applied his talents by constructing a formula
for the value of each player. This novel approach was covered by
Newsweek and by Walter Cronkite on the CBS television network.
While doing graduate studies, Knuth worked as a consultant, writing
compilers for different computers. In 1963, he earned a Ph.D. in
mathematics (advisor: Marshall Hall) from the California Institute of
Technology, where he became a professor and began work on The Art of
Computer Programming, originally planned to be a single book, and then
planned as a six, and then seven-volume series. In 1968, he published
the first volume.
That same year, he joined the faculty of Stanford University.
In 1971, Knuth was the recipient of the first ACM Grace Murray Hopper
Award. He has received various other awards including the Turing
Award, the National Medal of Science, the John von Neumann Medal and
the Kyoto Prize. After producing the third volume of his series in
1976, he expressed such frustration with the nascent state of the then
newly developed electronic publishing tools (esp. those which provided
input to phototypesetters) that he took time out to work on
typesetting and created the TeX and METAFONT tools.
n recognition of Knuth's contributions to the field of computer
science, in 1990 he was awarded the singular academic title of
Professor of The Art of Computer Programming, which has since been
revised to Professor Emeritus of The Art of Computer Programming.
In 1992 he became an associate of the French Academy of Sciences. Also
that year, he retired from regular research and teaching at Stanford
University in order to finish The Art of Computer Programming. In 2003
he was elected as a foreign member of the Royal Society. As of 2004,
the first three volumes of his series have been re-issued, and Knuth
is currently working on volume four, excerpts of which are released
periodically on his website. Meanwhile, Knuth gives informal lectures
a few times a year at Stanford University, which he calls Computer
Musings. He is also a visiting professor at the Oxford University
Computing Laboratory in the United Kingdom.
In addition to his writings on computer science, Knuth is also the
author of 3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated (1991), ISBN 0-89579-252-4, in
which he attempts to examine the Bible by a process of stratified
sampling, namely an analysis of chapter 3, verse 16 of each book. Each
verse is accompanied by a rendering in calligraphic art, contributed
by a group of calligraphers under the leadership of Hermann Zapf.
He is also the author of Surreal Numbers (1974) ISBN 0-201-03812-9, a
mathematical novelette on John Conway's set theory construction of an
alternate system of numbers. Instead of simply explaining the subject,
the book seeks to show the development of the mathematics. Knuth
wanted the book to prepare students for doing original, creative
research.
On January 1, 1990, Knuth announced to his colleagues that he would no
longer have an email address, so that he may concentrate on his work.
Knuth is a fan of Wikipedia, but he's a bit leery of the concept,
saying that he would not want to have to remain forever on guard after
making technically complex contributions, lest his comments be badly
reedited.
Working Environment:
Knuth uses a regular Linux-based Intel computer for most of his work.
He doesn't use fancy proprietary tools. He uses Emacs as an editor and
Fvwm2 as a windows manager. His fascinating configuration can be found
HERE:
Famous Quotes:
A list is only as strong as its weakest link.
An algorithm must be seen to be believed.
Any inaccuracies in this index may be explained by the fact that it
has been sorted with the help of a computer.
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not
tried it.
God is a challenge because there is no proof of his existence and
therefore the search must continue.
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.
If you optimize everything, you will always be unhappy.
In fact what I would like to see is thousands of computer scientists
let loose to do whatever they want. That's what really advances the
field.
Let us change our traditional attitude to the construction of
programs. Instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct a
computer what to do, let us concentrate rather on explaining to human
beings what we want a computer to do.
People think that computer science is the art of geniuses but the
actual reality is the opposite, just many people doing things that
build on eachother, like a wall of mini stones.
Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer.
Art is everything else we do.
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.
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.
The most important thing in the kitchen is the waste paper basket and
it needs to be centrally located.
The most important thing in the programming language is the name. A
language will not succeed without a good name. I have recently
invented a very good name and now I am looking for a suitable
language.
There's ways to amuse yourself while doing things and thats how I look
at efficiency.
Other Interesting Links:
* Donald Knuth's Stanford home page
* Donald Knuth: Leonard Euler of Computer Science (Softpanorama)
* The Potrzebie System of Weights and Measures
* Article about Knuth on www.stanfordalumni.org
Special Thanks to Wikipedia.org
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