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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.

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
Understanding
Programmers
Language
Oriented
Efficient
Use
Closer
Reality
Machine
Much
Machines
Tend
Method
Programmer

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The manuals we got from IBM would show examples of programs and I knew I could do a heck of a lot better than that. So I thought I might have some talent.
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I've never been a good estimator of how long things are going to take.
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It is much more rewarding to do more with less.
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TeX has found at least one bug in every Pascal compiler it's been run on, I think, and at least two in every C compiler
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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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There's ways to amuse yourself while doing things and thats how I look at efficency.
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If you find that you're spending almost all your time on theory, start turning some attention to practical things it will improve your theories. If you find that you're spending almost all your time on practice, start turning some attention to theoretical things it will improve your practice.
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I define UNIX as 30 definitions of regular expressions living under one roof.
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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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The sun comes up just about as often as it goes down, in the long run, but this doesn't make its motion random.
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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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Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do.
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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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The designer of a new kind of system must participate fully in the implementation.
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A list is only as strong as its weakest link.
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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.
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Computers are good at following instructions, but not at reading your mind.
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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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How can you own numbers? Numbers belong to the world.
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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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