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I hope the parent comment is intended to be sarcastic.

If you're not familiar with The Art of Computer Programming ("TAOCP"), it is an unreadable dense and heavily theoretical treatment of much of the fundamental data structures and algorithms in CS. It's definitely a classic, but I wouldn't try to learn from it if I wanted to be 'practical'. TAOCP is much worse than Intro to Algorithms in readability and practicality.

The most practical use for TAOCP is to display it prominently on your bookshelf to impress your colleagues. :P




A friend of mine is buying the full set of Knuth's books because some algorithms are only discussed here. So if you're a completist, these are for you.


I have yet to find a use for a tape sorting algorithm. ;-)

Yes, TAOCP is comprehensive and thorough. It's a useful resource, but pedantic and difficult.




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