>On Wed, Sep 30, 1998 at 09:27:29PM -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >> >> I agree. It's too bad that he wasted time that he could have spent >> finishing _The Art of Computer Programming_ on trivia like typesetting. > >It's just that he realized that typesetting isn't trivia at all, but very >interesting. And, IMHO, he was interested in it as an art. And furthermore, >he tried some interesting Meta-ness on it, influencing a lot of geniuses >(for example, Douglas Hofstadter). > >However, he is a mathematician, and, there was no typesetting systems for >mathematicians only a few years ago. Books were written with a typing >machine, and symbols added manually. Ever read some of those higher math >books from the time before TeX was available? It's a pain to read them. TeX >was a major relief for all scientists all over the world. > >And, he's still living, last time I checked, and is still working on TAOCP, >very concentrated, as he says. Please see for more info: >http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth >
Also, Addison-Wessley just rerpublished TAOCP redone in TeX. Sent my father a free set to have. :) Shaya