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Knuth's Fascicle 3b Available

Posted by timothy on from the brain-more-wrinkly-than-average dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Looks like Knuth is making progress on volume 4 of The Art of Computer Programming. Another fascicle is available. More news here."

4 of 38 comments (clear)

  1. publication schedule.... by jeffy124 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    general question:
    His publication schedule appears to be 2007 for Volume 4, 2010 for Volume 5, plus other work following that. I'm a little concerned about his age. I dont know how old he is, but he is retired and seems to have been for quite some time. Will he live long enough to actually finish Vol 5?

    --
    The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
    1. Re:publication schedule.... by __past__ · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Remember that he is already some years (decades?) past his original schedule.

      TAOCP will not be finished. Period. Knuth is too much of a genius, and a perfectionist, to actually manage to complete it in his lifetime. It will end up like Karl Marx' Kapital (which was planned to have 6 volumes, and he died early in preparing the third - which some people argue was only the third part of volume 1), with few people actually understanding all of it, and heated debates of what things might mean in the light of the never-written later parts.

      With the exception that fewer people will die because of such controversies in Knuth' case, because there aren't too many militant guerilla groups fighting for the right way to do seminumerical algorithms.

      --
      Programming can be fun again. Film at 11.
    2. Re:publication schedule.... by Animats · · Score: 4, Interesting
      In 1968, one could order the entire set for under $100, to be delivered as they were written.

      I wonder how many people are still waiting.

    3. Re:publication schedule.... by Detritus · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I bought a volume of TAOCP about 15 years ago that included a postcard for being notified when Volume 4 was published, which was supposed to be in the near future.

      --
      Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat