Quote

Let us change our traditional attitude to the construction of programs. Instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct a computer what to do, let us concentrate rather on explaining to human beings what we want a computer to do.

Donald Knuth

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Donald Knuth
Age: 86
Born: 1938
Born: January 10
Academic
Computer Scientist
Engineer
Historian Of Mathematics
Mathematician
Programmer
University Teacher
Writer
Milwaukee City
Wisconsin
Donald E. Knuth
Don Knuth
Donald Ervin Knuth
D.E.K.
DEK
Knuth
Instead
Task
Instruct
Attitude
Simplicity
Imagining
Learning
Main
Explaining
Rather
Traditional
Concentrate
Change
Tasks
Programs
Human
Program
Construction
Humans
Computer
Programming
Beings
Software

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Random numbers should not be generated with a method chosen at random
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I've never been a good estimator of how long things are going to take.
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By understanding a machine-oriented language, the programmer will tend to use a much more efficient method it is much closer to reality.
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I decry the current tendency to seek patents on algorithms. There are better ways to earn a living than to prevent other people from making use of one's contributions to computer science.
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The designer of a new kind of system must participate fully in the implementation.
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There's ways to amuse yourself while doing things and thats how I look at efficency.
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The best theory is inspired by practice.
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In fact, my main conclusion after spending ten years of my life working on the TEX project is that software is hard. It's harder than anything else I've ever had to do.
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I think people who write programs do have at least a glimmer of extra insight into the nature of God... because creating a program often means that you have to create a small universe
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I have a hunch that the unknown sequences of DNA will decode into copyright notices and patent protections.
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Beware of bugs in the above code I have only proved it correct, not tried it.
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It is much more rewarding to do more with less.
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Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do.
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AI has by now succeeded in doing essentially everything that requires 'thinking' but has failed to do most of what people and animals do 'without thinking'-that, somehow, is much harder.
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An algorithm must be seen to be believed.
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The most important thing in the programming language is the name. A language will not succeed without a good name. I have recently invented a very good name and now I am looking for a suitable language.
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The psychological profiling [of a programmer] is mostly the ability to shift levels of abstraction, from low level to high level. To see something in the small and to see something in the large.
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We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil. Yet we should not pass up our opportunities in that critical 3%
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Everyday life is like programming, I guess. If you love something you can put beauty into it.
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I remember that mathematicians were telling me in the 1960s that they would recognize computer science as a mature discipline when it had 1,000 deep algorithms. I think we've probably reached 500.
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