Donald Knuth

We honour Donald Knuth, “father of the analysis of algorithms,” who is a theoretical computer scientist and author of the multi-volume work The Art of Computer Programming. He is also the creator of the TeX computer typesetting system. Although, to our knowledge, he was never involved with the cypherpunks, he held strong views on software patents, particularly regarding trivial solutions, opposing the granting of patents by both the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the European Patent Office. Knuth managed to find beauty in his work and shared it with all of us. He encouraged us to find it also through literate programming, showing how close programming and natural language could be.