Editing The Art of Computer Programming (section)

==History==
[[File:KnuthAtOpenContentAlliance.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Donald Knuth in 2005]]

After winning a [[Regeneron Science Talent Search|Westinghouse Talent Search]] scholarship, Knuth enrolled at the Case Institute of Technology (now [[Case Western Reserve University]]), where his performance was so outstanding that the faculty voted to award him a [[Master of Science|master of science]] upon his completion of the [[bachelor's degree]]. During his summer vacations, Knuth was hired by the [[Burroughs Corporation]] to write [[compiler]]s, earning more in his summer months than full professors did for an entire year.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/107413 |hdl=11299/107413 |title=An Interview with Donald E. Knuth |author-first=Philip L. |author-last=Frana |date=2001-11-08 |access-date=2018-06-20  |archive-date=2018-06-20  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180620181207/https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/107413 |url-status=live }}</ref> Such exploits made Knuth a topic of discussion among the mathematics department, which included [[Richard S. Varga]].

In January 1962, when he was a graduate student in the mathematics department at Caltech, Knuth was approached by [[Addison-Wesley]] to write a book about compiler design, and he proposed a larger scope. He came up with a list of twelve chapter titles the same day. In the summer of 1962 he worked on a [[Fortran|FORTRAN]] compiler for [[UNIVAC]], considering that he had "sold my soul to the devil" to develop a FORTRAN compiler<ref name="Feigenbaum 2007">{{cite web |last1=Feigenbaum |first1=Edward |author-link1=Edward Feigenbaum |title=Oral History of Donald Knuth |url=https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Oral_History/Knuth_Don_1/Knuth_Don.oral_history.2007.102658053_all.pdf |url-status=live |website=Computer History Museum |access-date=2024-11-26 |date=2007 |archive-date=2008-12-09  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081209120854/http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Oral_History/Knuth_Don_1/Knuth_Don.oral_history.2007.102658053_all.pdf }}</ref>{{rp|15}} after [[ALGOL]] developments with Burroughs. He remained as a consultant to Burroughs over the period 1960 to 1968 while writing Volume 1 "Fundamental Algorithms".

During this time, he also developed a mathematical analysis of [[linear probing]], which convinced him to present the material with a quantitative approach. After receiving his Ph.D. in June 1963, he began working on his manuscript, of which he finished his first draft in June 1965, at {{val|3000}} hand-written pages.<ref>{{cite web |author-first=Donald E. |author-last=Knuth |author-link=Donald Ervin Knuth |url=https://garfield.library.upenn.edu/classics1993/A1993LQ46300001.pdf |title=This Week's Citation Classic |work=Current Contents |number=34 |date=1993-08-23 |page=8 |access-date=2024-11-26  |archive-date=2024-01-05  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105142743/https://garfield.library.upenn.edu/classics1993/A1993LQ46300001.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> He had assumed that about five hand-written pages would translate into one printed page, but his publisher said instead that about {{frac|1|1|2}} hand-written pages translated to one printed page. This meant he had approximately {{val|2000}} printed pages of material, which closely matches the size of the first three published volumes.

The first volume of "The Art of Computer Programming", "Fundamental Algorithms", took five years to complete between 1963 and 1968 while working at both Caltech and Burroughs.

Knuth's dedication in Volume 1 reads:

<blockquote>This series of books is affectionately dedicated<br>to the [[IBM 650|Type 650 computer]] once installed at<br>[[Case Institute of Technology]],<br>in remembrance of many pleasant evenings.<ref group="lower-alpha">The dedication was worded slightly differently in the first edition.</ref></blockquote>

In the preface, he thanks first his wife Jill, then Burroughs for the use of B220 and B5500 computers in testing most of the programs, and Caltech, the National Science Foundation, and the Office of Naval Research.<ref name=TAOCP-FA>{{Cite web |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |title=The Art of Computer Programming (TAOCP) 2nd Edition, 1973 |url=https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/taocp.html |date=2019-08-03 |access-date=2024-11-26 |archive-date=2019-08-03  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803223145/https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/taocp.html |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|xii}}

Section 2.5 of "Fundamental Algorithms" is on [[Dynamic memory allocation|Dynamic Storage Allocation]]. Parts of this are used in the Burroughs approach to memory management. Knuth claims credit for “The “boundary-tag” method, introduced in Section 2.5, was designed by the author in 1962 for use in a control program for the B5000 computer.”{{r|TAOCP-FA|p=460}}

Knuth received support from Richard S. Varga, who was the scientific adviser to the publisher. Varga was visiting [[Olga Taussky-Todd]] and [[John Todd (computer scientist)|John Todd]] at [[Caltech]]. With Varga's enthusiastic endorsement, the publisher accepted Knuth's expanded plans. In its expanded version, the book would be published in seven volumes, each with just one or two chapters.<ref>
{{Cite book |chapter=Donald Knuth |author-first=Donald J. |author-last=Albers |title=Mathematical People: Profiles and Interviews |publisher=[[A. K. Peters]] |edition=2 |date=2008 |isbn=978-1-56881-340-0 |editor-first1=Donald J. |editor-last1=Albers |editor-first2=Gerald L. |editor-last2=Alexanderson |editor-link2=Gerald L. Alexanderson}}</ref> Due to the growth in Chapter 7, which was fewer than 100 pages of the 1965 manuscript, per Vol. 4A p. vi, the plan for Volume 4 has since expanded to include Volumes 4A, 4B, 4C, 4D, and possibly more.

In 1976, Knuth prepared a second edition of Volume 2, requiring it to be [[typesetting|typeset]] again, but the style of type used in the first edition (called [[Hot metal typesetting|hot type]]) was no longer available. In 1977, he decided to spend some time creating something more suitable. Eight years later, he returned with [[TeX|T<sub>E</sub>X]], which is currently used for all volumes.

Another characteristic of the volumes is the variation in the difficulty of the exercises including a numerical rating varying from 0 to 50, where 0 is trivial, and 50 is an open question in contemporary research.