Addendum:[...]I was always impressed that Knuth took such efforts to correct errors. Here is a Knuth anecdote:568. Knuth was always amazed at all the things that LaTex could do. When he saw my thesis (which was done in LaTex), he pointed to a particularly gnarly diagram and asked if I had done it in LaTex. I said, “ No, I did it in Mathematica, printed it up, cut it out and glued it onto the page and then xeroxed the page. Though I am sure that Oren (a LaTex wiz) could have done it in LaTex.”
—er, Oct 11, 2017, 8:11 AM.
Sooner rather than later, a reader of Finnegans Wake would do well to justify to himself its stupefying obscurity; for even as its most seasoned readers know, "Finnegans Wake is wilfully obscure. It was conceived as obscurity, it was executed as obscurity, it is about obscurity."—JOHN BISHOP, Joyces Book of the Dark, Finnegans Wake (1986), p. 3.
Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust,
On Thu, Jan 3, 2019 at 5:53 PM John Spurgeon wrote:
https://slytherinswake.blogspot.comYet another Work in Progress.
[...]P.S. Pardon the inevitable typos and ingenious citation style.
Names are important when developing a software product. Before the product has a decent name, it doesn't jell; afterwards, it magically comes together. I noticed this effect very strongly when I chose the name for TeX, and later when Bob Filman suggested the name METAFONT: A subtle, psychological effect changed my whole attitude to those programs. I don't know exactly why, but I do know that the names proved to be very powerful, from the moment they were chosen.—KNUTH, Companion to the Papers of Donald Knuth (2011), pp. 193-194.
DK: How did your project get to be called 'TeX'?
DEK: I didn't actually have a project or a name for it, although the name 'TEX' came to me rather early on. By the end of April I was thinking of designing a language for typesetting that would be called TEX. That named changed to 'TeX' quite awhile later. But I did have a name, yes; the minute TEX was named, I started to get ideas about it.ibid, p. 63.
Gentle reader: This is a handbook about TeX, a new typesetting system intended for the creation of beautiful books—and especially for books that contain a lot of mathematics.—KNUTH, The TeXbook (1984), p. v, Preface.
The correct way to refer to TeX in a computer file, or when using some other medium that doesn't allow lowering of the 'E', is to type 'TeX'. Then there will be no confusion with similar names, and people will be primed to pronounce everything properly.ibid, p. 1.
It is interesting you seem to have fallen in love with DEK (his books I mean). I too have admired him since very long. I was fortunate to have dinner with him an wife Jill sometime in the early 90’s.One of my unpublished reports (with DeMillo) contains a comprehensive analysis of the errors of TeX! Of curse, why would anyone read it?
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.41.1355
—ADITYA P. MATHUR (aditya_mathur), email Mar 26, 2017, 6:22 PM
John…thanks.I think the next time I use Java in an Intro Programming class, I will try to spend some time on Javascript. This way I can give a challenging project to the students (perhaps a final project) that makes them use both CSJS and SSJS. I am not sure if this will work, but at least I will give a good thought before making a final decision whether to follow such an approach.
Regarding TeX…the TeXbook is FANTASTIC! Full of humour. This is actually a manual (a “handbook” according to DEK). It is the best user manual I have ever read. The second best I read was the manual for the Mackie mixers! I bought one many years ago for my home studio. The manual is simply fantastic. Perhaps they got a clue from DEK! TeXbook is worth purchasing even if you can finish reading only the Preface!
A beautiful exercise from TeXbook: “How many jokes are in this book?”
Ans: This is a joke!I forgot exactly what page it occurs on but a fantastic index in the book should help in locating the exercise.
Best,
Adityaibid., Monday, April 03, 2017 7:04 PM
jokes, vi, 303, 449.
\jot, 194, 242, 349, 362.
Joyce, James Augustine, 100.—KNUTH, The TeXbook, Appendix I: Index, p. 469.
Exercise 14.15 Since TeX reads an entire paragraph before it makes any decisions about line breaks, the computer's memory capacity might be exceeded if you are typesetting the works of some philosopher or modernistic novelist who writes 200-line paragraphs. Suggest a way to cope with such authors.ibid., p. 100.
Exercise 27.5 Final exercise: Find all of the lies in this manual, and all of the jokes. Final exhortation: GO FORTH now and create masterpieces of the publishing art!ibid., p. 303.
27.5. If this exercise isn't just a joke, the title of this appendix is a lie.ibid., Appendix A: Answers to All the Exercises, p. 337.
Knuth taught a course for all freshmen grad students -- he gave a single problem each week and everyone worked on it. Separate from all that, all first years had to show minimal proficiency in 6 subjects (AI, software, hardware, MTC, NA and algorithms). I didn't want to take any more courses so I decided to study all of them on my own. But as a result, I felt too busy to take his course. I have always regretted that. Later, when I became an algorithms student I had to take Knuth's course from the pernicious purple book. Every page of that book took me a day to understand. But when the course was offered, he wasn't teaching it -- Andy Yao was. So I never got to take a course with Knuth. Bad timing.-e
—EVAN COHN (er), Mon, Mar 27, 2017 at 12:40 AM.
P.P.S.
Desocupado lector: sin juramento me podras creer qui quisiera que este libro, como hijo del entendimiento, . . .—CERVANTES, Don Quijote de La Mancha, Primera parte, Prologo.
Idle reader: Without my swearing to it, you can believe that I would like this book, the child of my understanding, . . .ibid., Edith Grossman translation.
Idling reader, you may believe me when I tell you that I should have liked this book, which is the child of my brain, . . .ibid., Samuel Putnam translation.
etc. and so on and so forth. . . .
P.P.P.S.
http://www.jamesjoyceencyclopedia.com/data/WorkInProgress/WorkInProgress.htm
