Backwards Thinking

When I think about it, it strikes me as odd that someone who thinks E-Ink and modern languages are the best thing since transistors would enjoy a paperback on antiquated compiler techniques. Of course, it's hard to argue when I haven't been able to put the thing aside for the last week. Simply put, Knuth's "Selected Papers on Computer Languages" reads like a novel and is, in my humble opinion, better than his other books. The real difference is in flow (also, I find algorithm complexity immensely dull, but I digress). While TAoCP holds an overwhelming amount of information, the task of documenting that amount of material is simply too much; it just feels rushed. This collection, however, is Knuth in his element. Many of the papers were never formally presented; some are letters, others are just tidied-up notes. It's a very honest writing style and a real pleasure to read because of it. I find myself forgetting that some of the work I'm reading fundamentally changed the world of compilers when it was originally published. Here's to my favorite dead tree in the last several years.