🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Dec16.231320.12021@tellab5.tellabs.com> jab@tellabs.com (Jeff Brooks) writes:
>I've recently completed my first couple of classed towards a Masters in CS
>and was told by one of my professors that Knuth's multi-volume set of books
>"The Art of Computer Programming" are THE classic computer science books.
>
>My questions are, are these books still worth reading or are they outdated?
>The copy of volume 1 I found has a copyright date of 1973, so, should I
>just read them as a historical reference or is most of the technical content
>still applicable to today's programming methods?
>
>Thanks in advance for your opinion or any other references that you can
>recommend instead.

I believe the Knuth books are the greatest books I've ever seen.
I'm continually amazed by their breadth, depth, and outright
scholarship.  They're a remarkable accomplishment and I hope the
fourth volume comes out soon.

I'm sure they're a tad dated now, maybe reflecting a mindset that is
not entirely modern, rather than filled with material that is better
understood now.  And certainly some modern topics are missing or
under-represented, such as parallel programming.  But if you read
those books, and complete the exercises, I think you'll be very
well prepared to tackle any problem.  And, yes, 99% of the material is
still applicable to current day-to-day programming.

David Fry                                  fry@math.harvard.edu
Division of Applied Sciences               fry@huma1.bitnet
Harvard University                      ...!harvard!huma1!fry
Cambridge, MA  02138