Richard said:
And why is that I wonder? Because it's almost impenetrable to any one
but the most formal and mathematical and probably boring of
programmers.
It is a reference book for chrissakes.
Quoting Knuth himself:
"I have tried to write this set of books in such a way that it will fill
several needs. In the first place, these books are reference books
which summarise the knowledge which has been acquired in several
important fields. They can also be used as textbooks for self-study or
for college courses in computer and information sciences."
"This set of books is intended for people who will be more than just
casually interested in computers, yet it is by no means only for the
computer specialist. Indeed, one of the main goals has been to make
these programming techniques more accessible to the many people working
in other fields who can make fruitful use of computers, yet who cannot
afford the time to locate all of the necessary information which is
buried in the technical journals."
"A reader who is interested primarily in programming rather than in the
associated mathematics may stop reading each section as soon as the
mathematics becomes recognisably difficult."
