"The bible of all fundamental algorithms and the work that taught many of today's software developers most of what they know about computer programming.""--Byte," September 1995 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. "I can't begin to tell you how many pleasurable hours of study and recreation they have afforded me I have pored over them in cars, restaurants, at work, at home... and even at a Little League game when my son wasn't in the line-up.""--"Charles Long Primarily written as a reference, some people have nevertheless found it possible and interesting to read each volume from beginning to end. A programmer in China even compared the experience to reading a poem. "If you think you're a really good programmer... read Knuth's] "Art of Computer Programming.".. You should definitely send me a resume if you can read the whole thing.""--"Bill Gates 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. "It's always a pleasure when a problem is hard enough that you have to get the Knuths off the shelf. I find that merely opening one has a very useful terrorizing effect on computers.""--"Jonathan Laventhol In describing the new fourth volume, one reviewer listed the qualities that distinguish all of Knuth's work. In sum: ] "detailed coverage of the basics, illustrated with well-chosen examples; occasional forays into more esoteric topics and problems at the frontiers of research; impeccable writing peppered with occasional bits of humor; extensive collections of exercises, all with solutions or helpful hints; a careful attention to history; implementations of many of the algorithms in his classic step-by-step form." --Frank Ruskey These four books comprise what easily could be the most important set of information on any serious programmer's bookshelf.
Donald Ervin Knuth, born January 10th 1938, is a renowned computer scientist and Professor Emeritus of the Art of Computer Programming at Stanford University.
Author of the seminal multi-volume work The Art of Computer Programming ("TAOCP"), Knuth has been called the "father" of the analysis of algorithms, contributing to the development of, and systematizing formal mathematical techniques for, the rigorous analysis of the computational complexity of algorithms, and in the process popularizing asymptotic notation.
In addition to fundamental contributions in several branches of theoretical computer science, Knuth is the creator of the TeX computer typesetting system, the related METAFONT font definition language and rendering system, and the Computer Modern family of typefaces.
A prolific writer and scholar, Knuth created the WEB/CWEB computer programming systems designed to encourage and facilitate literate programming, and designed the MMIX instruction set architecture.
I haven't read these all the way through mind you, but these books make up the greatest programing reference available, not for any language mind you, but programing in general, meta-programing if you well. Algorithms galore, sorting, and searching, and etc. If your looking for a solution to a programing problem its probably here. Required for intermediate level skill and up, not for beginners. Book 4A is the compilation of the the five Fascicles, making this a vary complete and desirable collection.
I have to admit I am poor, so I just bought the book I needed. I needed to build a database that did not use any commercial package. This book saved my bacon.
I almost did not buy it when all I saw in it was math. But I was desperate, and it paid off. Turns out you could not explain it any other way. I use it primarily for balanced trees. I may try something more exotic later. I cannot tell you about the other volumes but this one will definitely pay for itself.