The Designer Of A New

...one Of The Most Important Lessons, Perhaps, Is The Fact That Software Is Hard. From Now On I Shall Have Significantly Greater Respect For Every Successful Software Tool That I Encounter. During The Past Decade I Was Surprised To Learn That The Writing Of Programs For Tex And Metafont Proved To Be Much More Difficult Than All The Other Things I Had Done (like Proving Theorems Or Writing Books). The Creation Of Good Software Demand A Significiantly Higher Standard Of Accuracy Than Those Other Things Do, And It Requires A Longer Attention Span Than Other Intellectual Tasks.

Email Is A Wonderful Thing For People Whose Role In Life Is To Be On Top Of Things. But Not For Me; My Role Is To Be On The Bottom Of Things. What I Do Takes Long Hours Of Studying And Uninterruptible Concentration.

I Decry The Current Tendency To Seek Patents On Algorithms. There Are Better Ways To Earn A Living Than To Prevent Other People From Making Use Of One's Contributions To Computer Science.

Programs Are Meant To Be Read By Humans And Only Incidentally For Computers To Execute.

The Best Theory Is Inspired By Practice.