The Art of Computer Programming

Countless readers have spoken about the profound personal influence of Knuth's work. Scientists have marveled at the beauty and elegance of his analysis, while ordinary programmers have successfully applied his "cookbook" solutions to their day-to-day problems. All have admired Knuth for the breadth, clarity, accuracy, and good humor found in his books.

Primarily written as a reference, if you need to do any serious computer programming, you will find your own good reason to make each volume from beginning to end. A programmer in China even compared the experience to reading a poem.

Whatever your background, if you need to do any serious computer programming, you will find your own good reason to make each volume in this series a readily accessible part of your scholarly or professional library.

For the first time in more than 20 years, Knuth has revised all three books to reflect more recent developments in the field. His revisions focus specifically on those areas where knowledge has converged since publication of the last editions, on problems that have been solved, on problems that have changed. In keeping with the authoritative character of these books, all historical infomation about previous work in the field has been updated where necessary. Consistent with the author's reputation for painstaking perfection, the rare technical errors in his work, discovered by perceptive and demanding readers, have all been corrected. Hundreds of new exercises have beeen added to raise new challenges.

A word from Don Knuth:

For the past 20 years I've been making copious notes in my personal copies of The Art of Computer Programming, whenever I've noticed how those books could be made better. Finally the time is ripe to typeset those books from scratch, using the tools of digital typography that I worked on during the 1980s. The new editions incorporate literally thousands of improvements, including hundreds of instructive new exercises and answers to exercises. I think most readers will enjoy these new things as much as I did when I first learned them. I've been especially careful to include any new historical details that have come to my attention, and to provide up-to-date information about all the research problems stated in previous editions. Computer Science has been changing and growing at a fantastic rate, yet I believe nearly everything in The Art of Computer Programming is crucial information that will never become obsolete.