Donald Knuth

Donald E. Knuth (), Professor Emeritus of The Art of Computer Programming at Stanford University.

Father of The Art of Computer Programming and $\mathrm{\TeX}$ as two achievements only in a myriad (including MMIX for TAOCP or METAFONT for $\mathrm{\TeX}$), a purist, a craftsman of the intellect, a literal computer scientist, supreme coder and a mind-bogglingly productive author, geekiness turned academic, he has been aptly nicknamed "the Euler of computer science" [1].

I met him for the first (and so far only) time on 26, May (2009), in Oxford, at the occasion of a seminar he was giving (on priority sampling). He signed my volume 2 of TAOCP.

His favourites

Allegedly, according to geekchic (copied here for backup as the link occasionally went broken):

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What is your programming language of choice? CWEB What is your favorite operating system? LINUX Do you have a hero or role model? MANY What is your favorite kind of music? CHAMBER What is your favorite news group? NONE What is your favorite web page (besides geekchic!)? LIBRARIES What sports do you enjoy? BASEBALL

What kind of car do you drive? VOLVO What hobbies do you enjoy outside of work? PIPE ORGAN What is your favorite book (or author)? AGATHA CHRISTIE What is your favorite movie? SILVER STREAK What sort of clothing do you usually wear to work? T-SHIRT WITH THEME OF THE DAY What is your favorite food? CHOCOLATE

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I've watched Silver Streak. It's a strange movie to have as a favorite, but it's certainly worth an evening.

P=NP

An interesting footnote in volume 4's pre-fascicle 6A:

Links

• Homepage.
• @realDonaldKnuth with one post so far.
• Love at First Byte.
• Oral history interview.

Funny

• A funny satire (acid).
• A funny commemoration (nice).
• xkcd.com/163, 342 and 816.