Previews of Vol. 4 & Love at First Byte

逛到 Knuth 的網站，發現前兩天剛釋出 Volume 4（也就是第 7 章）一開始的簡介「先睹為快版」。我發現把它當科普看的話很輕鬆，就單純欣賞 Knuth 迷人的文筆，至於要用腦的地方先隨便看過去 XD。

然後去年 Stanford Magazine 有篇〈Love at First Byte〉，是 Knuth 到目前為止的簡傳，寫得滿不錯。文章一開始敘述 Knuth 和 IBM Type 650 一見鍾情，自此開展一生豐功偉業。中間很多描述都和我歸納得到的結果符合。文章最後一段實在太感人，我一定要引過來：

His hair is whiter than when he began his journey, and his sideburns more brushy, but he is still the curious soul who has devoted his life to explaining humans and machines to one another. As the rest of the neighborhood sleeps, Knuth gets up from his magically comfortable seat and takes the first volume of The Art of Computer Programming from the shelf. He reads the dedication aloud: "This series of books is affectionately dedicated to the Type 650 computer once installed at Case Institute of Technology in remembrance of many pleasant evenings." He closes the book, looking a bit misty. “It brings tears to the eye,” he says softly.

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Simply a beautiful story, isn't it?