

Interview with Donald Knuth (2008) - chjj
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1193856

======
chjj
I saw this a while ago and always thought it was interesting: I initially
thought Knuth was an Apple fan after watching a few of his lectures, but
apparently he uses his Macbook only for trivial everyday tasks.

For every WM enthusiast here:

Screenshot of Knuth's setup: [http://www-cs-
faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/screen.jpeg](http://www-cs-
faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/screen.jpeg)

Knuth's fvwm2 config: [http://www-cs-
faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/programs/.fvwm2rc](http://www-cs-
faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/programs/.fvwm2rc)

~~~
myg204
Even his comments on that wm config file are a great read...inspiring to see
such thoughtfulness on all levels.

~~~
quesebifurcan
I agree. This Knuth gem is also well worth a read:
[http://www.literateprogramming.com/adventure.pdf](http://www.literateprogramming.com/adventure.pdf).

------
mabbo
"Remember, though, that my opinion on economic questions is highly suspect,
since I’m just an educator and scientist. I understand almost nothing about
the marketplace."

How wonderful to hear a person say that. Like, hey, I'm an expert at just this
one field, not every field. Rare to see that attitude these days.

~~~
_Robbie
Yes, I appreciated that too. I wonder if the media has had an impact on this.
In a TV interview for instance, it might be considered rude to refuse to
answer a question.

------
jostylr
I have been using my version of literate programming (markdown compiled with
node : [https://github.com/jostylr/literate-
programming](https://github.com/jostylr/literate-programming)) for awhile now
and I have to agree with him that it does become indispensable. I am already
at the point that I can't imagine coding without it. Particularly now that I
have embraced Vim and the fantastic outliner Voom.

Re-editable instead of reusable code struck me as right on target as well,
though there is the issue of patches.

Thinking for oneself instead of following conventional wisdom seems one of the
most important pieces of what ought to be conventional wisdom. It is a hard
road to travel, though.

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brudgers
If you want to spend quality time with Knuth without picking up _TAoCP_ , this
extensive video interview is awesome:

[http://www.webofstories.com/play/donald.knuth/1](http://www.webofstories.com/play/donald.knuth/1)

------
rakoo
> web browsing [...] recreation

Ha !

