Knuth Releases Part Of Volume 4 31
Grendel Drago writes: "Donald E. Knuth has released "Pre-Fascicle 2b: Generating all permutations" from TAOCP Volume 4. It will be section 7.2.1.2 of the final work. Oh, and Volume 4 may now fill *four* subvolumes. Send in bugs, get checks for $2.56, tell the grandkids."
This belongs on the front page (Score:4, Insightful)
Any programmer worth his salt has at least thumbed through the Knuth books. The set is one of half a dozen things I'd want to see on every programmer's bookshelf, and possibly even at the top of that list.
Knuth's getting on in years. Let's all pray/hope/whatever that he makes it through the remaining volumes. If not, it'll be a major loss.
Re:This belongs on the front page (Score:2)
I have to second the statement that these are the BEST computer science books available. They were written a long time ago and it is a bit humbling to realize that nearly all of the programming algorithms we use now were figured out by that time. These books are written in an entertaining manner, and they have clear explanations of everything. They are not beginner's books and they don't shy away from the math. I suspect that 100 years from now people will still be reading these books in the same way that English majors still read Shakespeare.
Re:This belongs on the front page (Score:1)
-Mike
Re:This belongs on the front page (Score:1)
a) MS sucks
b) See me new gadget
c) oh, yeah: technical stuff
What can be done to stem the tide of crapflooding?
Well... (Score:2)
I was mod'ded up twice, then mod'ded down twice.
Net result: No one will see the idea.
Re:This belongs on the front page (Score:2)
*looks around sheepishly*
At least I can tell my grandkids I got a story on Slashdot, too. Even if it wasn't on the front page...
-grendel drago
Oh please... (Score:2)
1. Our employer requires it.
2. It lets us get things done very quickly.
But I suppose you think everything should be written in C right? Where's my freedom of choice in that?!
Send in bugs get checks for $2.56 and $5.12 ... (Score:2)
Re:Send in bugs get checks for $2.56 and $5.12 ... (Score:2)
He stopped doubling it years ago.
Bug Payouts (Score:2)
-grendel drago
Tell your grandkids and they'll lock you up (Score:1)
Michael, if I said this to my grandkids they would throw me in the insane asylum for spewing gibberish.
That sentance makes *zero* sense to neophytes, and I doubt it makes sense to experienced *phytes in the industry you are talking about (What industry are you talking about? Programming? Cryptology? DNA sequencing?).
Who is Donald Knuth anyways? Wasn't he the head Animator behind the "Secrets of Nimh" cartoon & the "Dragon's Lair" & "Space Quest" video games?
Re:Tell your grandkids and they'll lock you up (Score:1, Funny)
Anyway, any professional programmer who can't identify Knuth (because of TAOCP or TeX), or at the least hasn't heard anecdotes of Knuth's infamous $2.56 reward for finding bugs in TeX and mistakes in his textbooks, ought to be shot.
Re:Tell your grandkids and they'll lock you up (Score:1, Insightful)
No, really! :+) (Score:2)
As far as the math goes, most programmers I've met aren't real strong in math. But then, most of the programmers I know do (and most of the programming I do) straight-up business applications. If there's any math in there, it usually gets handed to you by an accountant/actuary/whomever with about a ream of documentation. That's just the reality of it for math skills. It's much more important that I be able to manage very complex systems and keep my soft skills strong. Those I use every day.
Not On The Main Page (Score:2)
-grendel drago
Re:Tell your grandkids and they'll lock you up (Score:2, Funny)
Try: shot, hanged, boiled in oil, disemboweled, drawn and quartered, fed to sharks, and then tried for heresy.
Clarification... (Score:4, Informative)
Dude, I'm going to have to take the blame for that one. You'll notice that that text was italicized, and hence came from my submission.
Let's expand this a bit. Don Knuth sends $2.56 (a ``hexadecimal dollar'') for each bug so found. This money is sent in check form. No one in their right mind would actually cash them, especially since Knuth is getting on in years. (Note that he's just celebrated his millionth birthday---in base 2, of course.) I have two checks from Knuth (though for ``useful suggestions'', worth but thirty-two cents apiece), and they are possibly my most prized possessions.
And that's ``Don Bluth''. Not ``Don Knuth''. Though they're both rather devout men, that's where the similarities end, unless Don Bluth plays the organ...
-grendel drago
from the inside flap... (Score:2, Interesting)
From amazon [amazon.com].
TAOCP has got to be one of the greatest examples of a genius mind at work. Knuth's work should be placed in the same echelon as Shakespear, Chaucer, and Hemingway.
-Vic
Re:from the inside flap... (Score:1)
More interesting... (Score:3, Interesting)
Evidently the random number generator ran_array / RNARRAY from Volume 2 had some problems. As I read it, if one seed is used many times, it would produce numbers that passed randomness tests; but one user tried many different seeds for only a few generations - which began to fail randomness tests.
The remarkable thing Knuth noted was that two different methods of fixing it were found by Richard Brent. The first was to discard the first 2000 numbers; the other was just basic improvement of the initialization of the algorithm.
I'm very curious as to why this is; my understanding of seminumerical theory is limited to what I've read in Knuth, but I'm still very interested in the causes of this problem.
That's GNUth, please (Score:1)
Funny! (Score:2)
*snapplause*[*].
-grendel drago
[*] ``Snapplause'' is the sound of scads of people snapping their fingers in approval, Beatnik-style.