Editing Donald Knuth (section)

== Writings ==
Knuth is a writer as well as a computer scientist.<ref name=vitae>{{Cite web |url=https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/vita.html |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |title=Curriculum vitae |publisher=Stanford University |access-date=March 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803232050/https://www.cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/vita.html |archive-date=August 3, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== ''The Art of Computer Programming'' (''TAOCP'') ===
{{main |The Art of Computer Programming}}
{{Blockquote
|text="The best way to communicate from one human being to another is through story."
|author=Donald Knuth<ref name="quanta_magazine"/>
}}

In the 1970s, Knuth called computer science "a totally new field with no real identity. And the standard of available publications was not that high. A lot of the papers coming out were quite simply wrong.&nbsp;... So one of my motivations was to put straight a story that had been very badly told."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fbbva.es/TLFU/tlfu/ing/microsites/premios/fronteras/galardonados/2010/informacion.jsp |title=BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards |access-date=October 15, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819042332/http://www.fbbva.es/TLFU/tlfu/ing/microsites/premios/fronteras/galardonados/2010/informacion.jsp |archive-date=August 19, 2016 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

From 1972 to 1973, Knuth spent a year at the [[University of Oslo]] among people such as [[Ole-Johan Dahl]]. This is where he had originally intended to write the seventh volume in his book series, which was to deal with programming languages. But Knuth had finished only the first two volumes when he came to Oslo, and thus spent the year on the third volume, next to teaching. The third volume came out just after Knuth returned to Stanford in 1973.<ref>{{Cite web|date=1997|title=Publikasjonen "Datahistorien ved Universitetet i Oslo - Institutt for informatikk 1977 - 1997" utgitt|language=Norwegian|trans-title=The publication "Computer history at the University of Oslo - Department of Informatics 1977 - 1997" published|url=https://ordenen.ifi.uio.no/history/1997-datahistorien-ved-universitetet-i-oslo-published/|url-status=live|access-date=29 April 2021|website=University of Oslo|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210429185911/https://ordenen.ifi.uio.no/history/1997-datahistorien-ved-universitetet-i-oslo-published/ |archive-date=April 29, 2021 }}</ref>

''[[Concrete Mathematics|Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science]]'' originated with an expansion of the mathematical preliminaries section of Volume 1 of ''TAoCP''. Knuth found that there were mathematical tools necessary for Volume 1, but missing from his repertoire, and decided that a course introducing those tools to computer science students would be useful. Knuth introduced the course at Stanford in 1970. Course notes developed by [[Oren Patashnik]] evolved into the 1988 text, with authors [[Ronald Graham]], Knuth, and Patashnik. A second edition of ''Concrete Mathematics'' was published in 1994.

By 2011, Volume 4A of ''TAoCP'' had been published.<ref name="TAOCP" /> In April 2020, Knuth said he anticipated that Volume 4 of ''TAoCP'' will have at least parts A through F.<ref name="quanta_magazine" /> Volume 4B was published in October 2022.

=== Other works ===
Knuth is also the author of ''[[Surreal Numbers (book)|Surreal Numbers]]'',<ref name=surreal/> a mathematical novelette on [[John Horton Conway]]'s [[set theory]] construction of an alternate system of numbers. Instead of simply explaining the subject, the book seeks to show the development of the mathematics. Knuth wanted the book to prepare students for doing original, creative research.

In 1995, Knuth wrote the foreword to the book ''A=B'' by [[Marko Petkovšek]], [[Herbert Wilf]] and [[Doron Zeilberger]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://sites.math.rutgers.edu/~zeilberg/DEK.html |title=DEK |last=Zeilberg |publisher=Rutgers |access-date=March 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170828184416/http://sites.math.rutgers.edu/~zeilberg/DEK.html |archive-date=August 28, 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He also occasionally contributes language puzzles to ''[[Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://old.linguistlist.org/pubs/journals/get-journals.cfm?JournalID=22720|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210611115447/https://old.linguistlist.org/pubs/journals/get-journals.cfm?JournalID=22720|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 11, 2021|title=The Linguist List -- Journal Page|website=linguistlist.org|access-date=2022-12-14}}</ref>

Knuth has delved into [[recreational mathematics]]. He contributed articles to the ''[[Journal of Recreational Mathematics]]'' beginning in the 1960s, and was acknowledged as a major contributor in [[Joseph Madachy]]'s ''Mathematics on Vacation''.<ref>Madachy, Joseph S.,''Mathematics on Vacation'', Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd. 1966</ref>

Knuth also appears in a number of [[Numberphile]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Videos about Numbers and Stuff |url=https://www.numberphile.com/team/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181104201526/http://www.numberphile.com/team/index.html |archive-date=November 4, 2018 |url-status=dead |work=[[Numberphile]] |access-date=August 16, 2019}}</ref> and Computerphile videos on [[YouTube]], where he discusses topics from writing ''Surreal Numbers''<ref>{{Citation|last=Numberphile|title=Surreal Numbers (writing the first book) - Numberphile|date=2016-06-27|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPn2AdMH7UQ| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/mPn2AdMH7UQ| archive-date=2021-12-11 | url-status=live|access-date=2019-07-19}}{{cbignore}}</ref> to why he does not use email.<ref>{{Citation|last=Computerphile|title=Why Don Knuth Doesn't Use Email - Computerphile|date=2015-08-21|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS8qwMna8_o|access-date=2019-07-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180711015226/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS8qwMna8_o|archive-date=July 11, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

Knuth had proposed the name "[[algorithmics]]" as a better name for the discipline of computer science.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burkholder |first1=Leslie |title=Philosophy and the Computer |date=1992 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9780429301629 |pages=}}</ref>

===Works about his religious beliefs===
In addition to his writings on computer science, Knuth, a [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]],{{Sfn | Platoni | 2006}} is also the author of ''3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated'',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |title=3:16 : Bible texts illuminated |year=1991 |place=Madison, [[Wisconsin|WI]] |publisher=A-R Eds |isbn=978-0-89579-252-5}}</ref> in which he examines the Bible by a process of [[systematic sampling]], namely an analysis of chapter 3, verse 16 of each book.  Each verse is accompanied by a rendering in calligraphic art, contributed by a group of calligraphers led by [[Hermann Zapf]]. Knuth was invited to give a set of lectures at MIT on the views on religion and computer science behind his 3:16 project, resulting in another book, ''[[Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About]]'', where he published the lectures ''God and Computer Science''.<ref name="Knuth 2001 Rarely Talks">{{cite book | last=Knuth | first=Donald Ervin | title=Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About | publisher=Center for the Study of Language and Information Publications | publication-place=Stanford, California | date=2001 | isbn=978-1-57586-326-9 }}</ref>

===Opinion on software patents===
Knuth strongly opposes granting [[software patent]]s to trivial solutions that should be obvious, but has expressed more nuanced views for nontrivial solutions such as the [[interior-point method]] of [[linear programming]].<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.ams.org/notices/200203/fea-knuth.pdf |title=All Questions Answered |date=March 2002 |type=article |journal=Notices |access-date=March 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190430030346/http://www.ams.org/notices/200203/fea-knuth.pdf |archive-date=April 30, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> He has expressed his disagreement directly to both the [[United States Patent and Trademark Office]] and [[European Patent Organisation]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.groklaw.net/images/G308Knuth.pdf |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |postscript=Letter |title=Against software patents |access-date=February 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924040943/http://www.groklaw.net/images/G308Knuth.pdf |archive-date=September 24, 2015 |url-status=dead }} to the patent offices in the USA and Europe.</ref>