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But you're right that Knuth has a dream "job" that the rest of us, at least those with the slightest "scholarly" inclinations, can only envy him for: he reads, explores, digests, and explains, the topics he likes and in the way he likes, and the results are great. But when you're already a legendary programmer in college (http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/B5000-AlgolRWaychoff.html#7), and have won a Turing Award at 36 (http://hagiograffiti.blogspot.com/2009/01/when-will-singular...) for a book you've been writing in your free time, one can say you're entitled to the life.
ENIAC was finished in 1945. I cannot imagine how small the programming world must've felt back then.
I consider this the first and last generation of truly self-taught programmers. Earlier programmers either built the computers themselves or were hired and trained on the job; they were professionals. Later programmers (all of us) did have some programming books/tutorials or some sort of community to draw from. But Knuth and his peers just had a machine with a manual describing its opcodes, and practically "discovered" programming independently at each "site", e.g. college. As he writes:
> The IBM 650 was the first computer to be manufactured in really large quantities. Therefore the number of people in the world who knew about programming increased by an order of magnitude. Most of the world's programmers at that particular time knew only about the 650, and were unaware of the already extensive history of computer developments in other countries and on other machines. We can still see this phenomenon occurring today, as the number of programmers continues to grow rapidly.
There is value in providing reference texts. There is value in providing sample usages of programs to the unfamiliar. There is value in demonstrating alternative means to reach the same goal.
Donald Knuth's work of cataloguing and examining the different branches and leaves of computer science would be valuable even if he weren't also a world-class computer scientist in his own right (which he just happens to be).
He writes these programs to research things, and then publishes an authoritative book on the subject.
I for one would feel privileged to get to meet him.
It's used by many to perfect their craft.
OK, even though the bible doesn't interest me, we once went through the score of the Fantasia Apocalyptica together and it was useful that I knew enough of the bible to discuss some references. There are also musical "puzzles" or clues in the score a few of which I was lucky enough to catch so I didn't come off as a complete dufus.
Highly recommended. Also, "3:16".
These are about the operating system of the soul.