News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:The Letter S, by Donald Knuth [pdf] by jll29 on Thursday May 21, 2026 @03:40AM (#48219173)
To spend nine pages full of mathematical formulae just to write a single letter (more) nicely shows the rigor/perfectionism/OCD that is the hallmark of Donald Ervin Knuth.

Thanks for giving us beautiful layout and better-looking fonts. Every time I write a new paper when I press "compile" in Overleaf I'm greatful that he made our work more beautiful, and it motivates me to make the content matter, too.

Re:The Letter S, by Donald Knuth [pdf] by commandlinefan on Thursday May 21, 2026 @09:08AM (#48222032)
I fear we'll never see another Donald Knuth... even if there were somebody else like him (and maybe there isn't!), there'd be nowhere for him to go in today's world.