/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.9915983]

> be Donald Knuth
> writing The Art of Computer Programming
> computer science/algorithms textbook.

> book is too big to write all at once, split into volumes
> volumes are too big to write all at once, split into fascicles
> fascicles are too big to write all at once, split into pre-fascicles
> readers need to buy a billion different copies to have the whole book
> mfw

> write a short section overviewing the math required for the rest of the book
> turns into its own 600 page textbook, Concrete Math
> mfw

> write a single chapter on combinatorial searching
> expect it to take 4 several hundred page volumes
> mfw

> publisher gets rid of the font I want
> gets pissed off, invents my own math typesetting system
> used for 27% of all research papers today (not just math)
> mfw

This freaking book is second in significance only to the Bible itself.

[Anonymous No.9916007]

>>9915983
>>>/g/tfo

[Anonymous No.9916457]

>>9916007
Knuth is way more /sci/ than /g/.

[Anonymous No.9916505]

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour

[Anonymous No.9916525]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75Ju0eM5T2c

>if too many people think something is trendy I think it's wrong

dumb hipster boomer

[Anonymous No.9916554]

>>9916525

[Anonymous No.9916578]

>>9915983
>Donald Knumph

[Anonymous No.9916580]

I actually have a cheque from Knuth for $0.32 for an error I pointed out in TAOCP. But I was lucky to actually get the cheque at all. Here's the story.
I sent in my correction and had forgotten about it until a few months later when I received a cryptic letter from Knuth saying that he'd accepted my 'challenge', was making the corrections and would deliver me a cheque for $0.32.

Luckily, I had heard about Knuth's violent confrontations with people he'd lured into pointing out errors in his books, but I was barely prepared for what happened.

Early one Saturday morning a heard a car draw up, follow by organ music coming from outside my front door. A knock quickly followed.
I opened the door and caught just a glimpse of a cloaked Knuth, TAOCP written in runes on his forehead using goat's blood, before I was hit between the eyes by a hardback copy of the METAFONT book.

Knuth pounced upon me with the speed and strength of a man half his age and pummeled me with a TeX manual screaming something about Leslie Lamport that I could barely make out.
I fought back as hard as I could and managed to roll with him towards my home office door where I'd prepared a trap in case the Knuth stories turned out to be true.

Propped above the door were all 3 volumes of TAOCP. In the struggle Knuth hit the door and received volume after volume upon his head. Dazed and gibbering in Japanese, he staggered to his feet and towards me, finally collapsing on the floor.

He reached into his cloak. Fearing a shirukin I ducked behind the sofa, only to hear him admit defeat and pull a crumpled cheque with my name on it from under the folds of heavy material.
To the families of the seven dead who Knuth taunts on his web site I pass on my condolences. To the seven: mourn you til I join you.
Be warned: don't fall into the this man's deadly trap.

[Anonymous No.9916660]

>>9916580
10/10

[Anonymous No.9916676]

>>9916580
holy shit lmfao

[Anonymous No.9916681]

>>9916580
lol

[The Lord No.9916683]

Knuth's Computer Modern is a great font.

[The Lord No.9916696]

[Anonymous No.9916703]

>>9916525
>I have been in love with books ever since I can remember. At first, my parents read to me a lot ― an unusual practice in America at the time, because the prevailing “wisdom” of the 1940s was that a child who is exposed to intellectual things at an early age will be bored later when entering school. Thanks to my parents, I became at age four the youngest member of the Book Worm Club at the Milwaukee Public Library.

No wonder why he thinks like that.

[Anonymous No.9916748]

>>9916580
You're a treasure

[Anonymous No.9916857]

>>9916683
No it actually sucks

[Anonymous No.9917044]

>>9916580
LOL