Donald Knuth Quotes About Computers

Quotes about: Computers

• Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do.

  Donald Knuth

  Art, Math, Science

  Foreword to the book "A=B" by Marko Petkovsek, Herbert S. Wilf and Doron Zeilberger, 1996.

• Computer programming is an art, because it applies accumulated knowledge to the world, because it requires skill and ingenuity, and especially because it produces objects of beauty. A programmer who subconsciously views himself as an artist will enjoy what he does and will do it better.

  Donald Knuth

  Art, Views, Skills

  "Computer Programming as an Art". Communications of the ACM, Volume 17, Issue 12, dl.acm.org. December 1974.

• The process of preparing programs for a digital computer is especially attractive, not only because it can economically and scientifically rewarding, but also because it can be an aesthetic experience much like composing poetry or music.

  Donald Knuth

  Digital, Computer, Program

  Donald E. Knuth (1997). “The Art of Computer Programming: Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms”, p.6, Addison-Wesley Professional

• Programming is the art of telling another human being what one wants the computer to do.

  Donald Knuth

  Art, Want, Computer

• Computers are good at following instructions, but not at reading your mind.

  Donald Knuth

  Funny Inspirational, Reading, Following Instructions

  Donald Ervin Knuth (1984). “The texbook”, Addison-Wesley Professional

• People think that computer science is the art of geniuses but the actual reality is the opposite, just many people doing things that build on each other, like a wall of mini stones.

  Donald Knuth

  Art, Wall, Reality

• When you write a program, think of it primarily as a work of literature. You're trying to write something that human beings are going to read. Don't think of it primarily as something a computer is going to follow. The more effective you are at making your program readable, the more effective it's going to be: You'll understand it today, you'll understand it next week, and your successors who are going to maintain and modify it will understand it.

  Donald Knuth

  Writing, Thinking, Next Week

• Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.

  Donald Knuth

  Funny Inspirational, Bugs, Computer

  Memorandum to Peter van Emde Boas, 29 Mar. 1977

• In fact what I would like to see is thousands of computer scientists let loose to do whatever they want. That's what really advances the field.

  Donald Knuth

  Want, Fields, Facts

• Let us change our traditional attitude to the construction of programs. Instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct a computer what to do, let us concentrate rather on explaining to human beings what we want a computer to do.

  Donald Knuth

  Change, Attitude, Learning

  "The Art of Computer Programming. Volume 3". Book by Donald Knuth, www.wired.com. 1973.

• I can't be as confident about computer science as I can about biology. Biology easily has 500 years of exciting problems to work on. It's at that level.

  Donald Knuth

  Years, Levels, Computer

  Computer Literacy Bookshops Interview, 1993.

• I decry the current tendency to seek patents on algorithms. There are better ways to earn a living than to prevent other people from making use of one's contributions to computer science.

  Donald Knuth

  People, Patents, Use

  "The Art of Computer Programming: Volume 3: Sorting and Searching". Book by Donald E. Knuth, 1973.

• Any inaccuracies in this index may be explained by the fact that it has been prepared with the help of a computer.

  Donald Knuth

  May, Facts, Helping

  Donald Ervin Knuth (2008). “The Art of Computer Programming: Fundamental algorithms”

• Science is knowledge which we understand so well that we can teach it to a computer; and if we don't fully understand something, it is an art to deal with it.

  Donald Knuth

  Art, Computer, Teach

  "Computer Programming as an Art". Communications of the ACM, Volume 17, Issue 12, dl.acm.org. December 1974.

• People who are more than casually interested in computers should have at least some idea of what the underlying hardware is like. Otherwise the programs they write will be pretty weird.

  Donald Knuth

  Writing, Should Have, Ideas

  "MMIX 2009 a RISC computer for the third millennium". www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu.

• Trees sprout up just about everywhere in computer science.

  Donald Knuth

  Tree, Computer, Computer Science

  Donald E. Knuth (2013). “Art of Computer Programming, Volume 4, Fascicle 4,The: Generating All Trees--History of Combinatorial Generation”, p.2, Addison-Wesley Professional

• For his major contributions to the analysis of algorithms and the design of programming languages, and in particular for his contributions to the "art of computer programming" through his well-known books in a continuous series by this title.

  Donald Knuth

  Art, Book, Design

• These machines have no common sense; they have not yet learned to "think," and they do exactly as they are told, no more and no less. This fact is the hardest concept to grasp when one first tries to use a computer.

  Donald Knuth

  Thinking, Common Sense, Trying

  Donald Ervin Knuth (1973). “The Art of Computer Programming: Fundamental algorithms”, Addison Wesley Publishing Company

• Programs are meant to be read by humans and only incidentally for computers to execute.

  Donald Knuth

  Computer, Program, Humans

• I try to learn certain areas of computer science exhaustively; then I try to digest that knowledge into a form that is accessible to people who don't have time for such study.

  Donald Knuth

  People, Trying, Study

• I remember that mathematicians were telling me in the 1960s that they would recognize computer science as a mature discipline when it had 1,000 deep algorithms. I think we've probably reached 500.

  Donald Knuth

  Thinking, Discipline, Algorithms

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