Me: “There is a huge epic work, planned for seven volumes, that old American man has been working on it for many years, it is so influential, you…… Do you know which one?”
Girlfriend: “Ah, you mean George R R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire!” The damn ending……”
Me: “err…… Are you stupid? I’m talking about The Art of Computer Programming by Gartner!”
Girl friend: “be that you treasure for a long time on the shelf, open and close again several times, the last year passed, you just read that set of books of more than 100 pages?”
Me: “…” (Most afraid of sudden silence in the air)
See! Even your girlfriend makes fun of how fast you read. It’s okay. She doesn’t understand you. Because this is not just any book, this is a set of sacred books.
God book is about the strength of the spirit, even if not finished, just placed on the shelf, you will feel at ease. That’s right! Is faith!
The multi-volume art of Computer Programming, which runs to millions of words, began in the 1960s. Its position can be compared with Euclid’s “Elements of Geometry” in the history of mathematics, which can be called the classic work of computer science theory and technology.
Even the book’s chief “Religious” Bill•Bill Gates once said, “If you think you’re a good programmer, read Gartner’s ‘The Art of Computer Programming.’ If you read it, no doubt you’ll send me your resume.”
So, did anyone who finished TAOCP send a resume to Gates?
Is such a set of god books, now has been published more than a million copies, countless programmers are fascinated by it. So who wrote it? The author is Gartner, one of the greatest programmers of our time. (Turing Education interviewed Professor Gartner in 2011. Read the transcript.)
He is the algorithmic spiritual leader of our time. Turing Award winner in 1974; In 1979, President Carter personally presented him with the National Medal of Science; Von Neumann Prize and Harvey Prize in 1995; In 1996, he received the Kyoto Prize established by the INAMORI Foundation of Japan, which is specially awarded to scientists who have made contributions in the field of high technology.
Have you ever heard of a Turing award for fruit? Gartner did. Gartner has always taken these awards in stride, and he has never cared about them. He had become deeply involved in the world of computer science.
All right! I admit I was jealous.
The Art of Computer Programming was the most important work of Gartner’s life. In 1992, he retired to focus on writing so that he could finish the tome. He took 28 PHDS in all, and no one else since.
He wrote this series of books to “organize and summarize the relevant knowledge of computer methods, and lay a solid mathematical and historical foundation”.
Interestingly, he didn’t want the books to scare people into shelving, but encouraged them to find mistakes in them.
If you find any errors in the book, you can send him an email, and if the errors are confirmed, you will receive a check from God for $2.56.
Why $2.56? Because “256 cents is exactly one hexadecimal dollar.” The world of the great god is indeed a mystery.
On top of that, he’s a perfectionist. You deserve Tex, your Virgo’s proprietary typesetting software.
When revising the seventh volume, he spent eight years developing the typesetting software because he was worried about the quality of the printing.
In his words: “I’ve spent 15 years writing books, and if they’re so ugly I’ll never write them again, how can I be proud of them?”
At present, the software has become one of the necessary software in the academic world, widely used in mathematics, physics and computer fields, can gracefully handle complex formulas.
TEX is powerful and has an interesting version number. Beginning with the third edition of TEX, subsequent upgrades included a new digit after the decimal point, bringing it closer and closer to the value of PI.
The current version of Tex is 3.1415926. This shows that TEX is already very stable and any upgrades are very subtle. Gartner has said:
“The last update was to change the number of versions to PI (after my death), at which point any remaining bugs would be considered a feature of the program.“
Of course, we hope that day never comes.
Such a great man, he is like any ordinary person around us. But in the process of this thing, he did the most incisive, which is the greatest respect for computers.
Some people find it difficult, at least most people find it difficult. “If you can’t figure it out,” Gartner says, “you might want to consider becoming a programmer.”
Programmers have to do it. Books have to be read. In fact, reading this book is like practicing internal skills, is a long-term building process, can not be urgent. Only when you can get to the bottom of it can you get a better idea of what the computer is thinking. Don’t be intimidated by previous experience. Try something and you’ll find something new.
Since its publication, the Chinese version has been well received by readers, with ratings above 9.0 on Douban. Some have dubbed it “a book only for promotion”. This is also the most desirable gift between programmers, high coercion, there is heart.
The new version, volume 4A, deals with combinatorial algorithms. It covers Boolean functions, bitwise manipulation techniques, tuples and permutations, combinations and partitioning, and all trees.
Before, I saw a Flag set up by a friend on Weibo, who called it his “12th Five-Year Plan” to finish the “Art of Computer Programming” series.
I noticed that his paper 4A was still in English and had to admire his courage. However, in order to accelerate his task, I would like to tell him that the Chinese version is available!
Li Bomin, one of the translators of Computer Programming Art Volume 4A: Combinatorial Algorithms (I), is 86 years old, older than Professor Gartner. He once served as the director of the Computer Center of Institute of High Energy Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences.
He is a very self-disciplined person. In addition to high-intensity translation work, he would go mountain climbing every week.
At the age of more than 80, he has conquered dahai Tuo, Baishi Mountain, Taishan, Laoshan, Wuyue Village, Zhangshiyan, ancient Beiyue (Damao Mountain), Qibugou Mawu Village and other peaks in North China in the last two years, which makes us young people admire him very much.
Teacher Li once said to us, “I hope you young people can exercise well, so that you can do your job well.”
Such physical quality not only kills us sub-healthy young people, but also we are moved by teacher Li Bomin’s resolute character. Such an old age, still engaged in heavy translation work, out of the sincere love for this work.
In addition to this volume 4, Mr. Li also participated in the translation of volume 1. In addition, he has translated the Course of Calculus and other books, is a very experienced translator teacher.
(Left: Mr. Li Bomin,
Picture right: This book, fu Zhihong, Turing’s vice president)
The process of publishing such a big book is a long one, with a lot of work to do. In order to give readers the best reading experience, our manuscripts have to go through three reviews and three proofings, and we also put a lot of effort into publishing, paper selection and printing. Thanks also go to every teacher who contributed to this book. And to our readers, thank you for looking forward to this book and making this possible.
Finally, I wish Professor Gartner and Professor Li Bomin a long and healthy life! Bring us more masterpieces.
The classic computer science book is back in print
Scan it, 6.9 percent off Jingdong Shopping
Art of Computer Programming Volume 4A: Combinatorial Algorithms
By Gartner
Translator: Li Bomin, Jia Hongfeng
The Art of Computer Programming series is recognized as the authoritative work in the field of computer science, which deeply expounds the theory of programming and has a profound influence on the development of the computer field. This book is the fourth volume A of the series, which mainly introduces combinatorial algorithms, covering Boolean functions, bitwise manipulation techniques, tuples and permutations, combinations and partitions, and all trees, etc.
Book reviews:
When I was in college, I didn’t pay rent for months to buy his books. I read these books and got a lot of fun out of them, like the trailer joke in the index of the first volume. I haven’t been able to understand everything in the book so far. Knuth researched some places much more deeply than I did, but I still liked the books and used them as references. “– Douglas Crockford
In fact, I’ve never read the whole set of books, not cover to cover. But when I was working on a specific algorithm, I went to see what he would say. I usually get what I want. It’s so comprehensive. — Joshua Bloch, founder of Java Collections Framework
I used it as my monitor base for a while because it was one of my biggest book sets and the height was just right. I feel comfortable because it’s always there for me, and because it’s right in front of me, IT’s easier for me to turn to it when I’m looking for a reference book. — Peter Norvig, computer scientist