Donald Knuth
Donald Knuth
Donald Ervin Knuthis an American computer scientist, mathematician, and professor emeritus at Stanford University...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMathematician
Date of Birth10 January 1938
CountryUnited States of America
achievement both complexity composing consistent emotional establish experience feeling master poetry prepare system
My feeling is that when we prepare a program, the experience can be just like composing poetry or music; as Andrei Ershov has said, programming can give us both intellectual and emotional satisfaction, because it is a real achievement to master complexity and to establish a system of consistent rules.
evil premature root
Premature optimization is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming.
explained fact help sorted
Any inaccuracies in this index may be explained by the fact that it has been sorted with the help of a computer.
roots evil debugging
We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil.
numbers method should
Random numbers should not be generated with a method chosen at random
engineering algorithms computer-science
An algorithm must be seen to be believed.
art math science
Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do.
everyday life-is-like programming
Everyday life is like programming, I guess. If you love something you can put beauty into it.
unhappy unhappiness ifs
If you optimize everything, you will always be unhappy.
computer program humans
Programs are meant to be read by humans and only incidentally for computers to execute.
science dna patents
I have a hunch that the unknown sequences of DNA will decode into copyright notices and patent protections.
art want computer
Programming is the art of telling another human being what one wants the computer to do.
educational learning hands
...methods are more important than facts. The educational value of a problem given to a student depends mostly on how often the thought processes that are invoked to solve it will be helpful in later situations. It has little to do with how useful the answer to the problem may be. On the other hand, a good problem must also motivate the students; they should be interested in seeing the answer. Since students differ so greatly, I cannot expect everyone to like the problems that please me.
reality understanding machines
By understanding a machine-oriented language, the programmer will tend to use a much more efficient method; it is much closer to reality.