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The real problem is that programmers have spent far too much time worrying about efficiency in the wrong places and at the wrong times; premature optimization is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming.
Donald Knuth
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People who are more than casually interested in computers should have at least some idea of what the underlying hardware is like. Otherwise the programs they write will be pretty weird.
Donald Knuth
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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
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Always remember, however, that there's usually a simpler and better way to do something than the first way that pops into your head.
Donald Knuth
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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.
Donald Knuth
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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
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A mathematical formula should never be "owned" by anybody! Mathematics belong to God.
Donald Knuth
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To summarize: We have seen that computer programming is an art, because it applies accumulated knowledge to the world, because it requires skill and ingenuity, and especially because it produces objects of beauty. A programmer who subconsciously views himself as an artist will enjoy what he does and will do it better. Therefore we can be glad that people who lecture at computer conferences speak of the state of the Art.
Donald Knuth
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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
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Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees.
Faith Baldwin
Donald Knuth
Creative Commons
Born:
January 10, 1938
(age 86)
Bio:
Donald Ervin Knuth is an American computer scientist, mathematician, and professor emeritus at Stanford University.
Known for:
The Art of Computer Programming (1968)
Concrete Mathematics (1994)
Literate Programming (1983)
3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated (1991)
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art
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spending
life
random
time
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