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In the Q&A Knuth mentions TAOCP conversion to ebook several times - I did a quick search and found only millions of pirate sites. Does anyone know the legitimate source where the ebook can be bought? Informit seemed likely but there are only two digital volumes available there.

(edit: there is a note saying "as they become available". I guess TAOCP is only partially portable so far, more to come.)

(brag: I got a decimal dollar by check from Professor Knuth for finding a typo in 2010. Nothing clever, just a cheap typo, but I was happy.)



My experience with bug reports to Knuth were mixed, although number one obviously was most important to me.

I got $2.56 for an error in content in one of his books. Actually the very first word in the very first sentence on the very first page (well, Arabic 1) was wrong. At least nobody can claim that he didn't get that far!

I got another $0.32 for a bug report which he actually demonstrated to be invalid, though he counted it as some kind of input or improvement. Oh, and he threw in a T-Shirt with the MMIX instruction set!

The third bug report was turned down without explanation (I think he actually replied "sorry, but no cigar").

The fourth bug report was also turned down and I even felt a bit insulted: his MMIX book says on the back cover that all programs are in the public domain, even though they all carry copyright notices with restrictions.

Knuth accused me quite harshly (IMO) to be some kind of Stallman fan talking nonsense about licenses and did not acknowledge the bug.


> Knuth accused me quite harshly (IMO) to be some kind of Stallman fan talking nonsense about licenses and did not acknowledge the bug.

Strange. Knuth appears to be a significant GNU supporter: http://www.gnu.org/thankgnus/2014supporters.html


I guess he had a bad day or whatever. Or maybe I read too much into what he wrote.


His personal page appears to have a link to the "approved" ebooks (http://www.informit.com/store/art-of-computer-programming-vo...).


The ebooks for volumes 1 and 2 are available on InformIT. Volume 3 is coming later this summer and volume 4 will be available in the fall. informit.com/knuth is up to date.


I found seven in my University's books, but they'd all been corrected by the time I handed them in.

I hope you framed that check!


I've seen 3 volumes recently posted on Safari Books Online



Way cool on the brag. I thought he stopped with the checks.


They are no longer legal currency but are issued on the The Bank of San Serriffe (address:Thirty Point, Caissa Inferiore, San Serriffe, Pincus).

The reason for the change: http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/news08.html




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