Letter to the Patent Office From Professor Donald Knuth (1994)
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Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment order>>"I am told that the courts are trying to make a distinction between mathematical algorithms and nonmathematical algorithms." As Knuth implies, this is a fool's errand, and this is the reason why courts should not award any patents protecting an algorithm at all. As a thought exercise, is "A website that advertises a series of random beers from a known collection of user preferred beers" mathematical? No? Then, is a random shuffling algorithm mathematical based on a vector of inputs…
"Therefore the idea of passing laws that say some kinds of algorithms belong to mathematics and some do not strikes me as absurd as the 19th century attempts of the Indiana legislature to pass a law that the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter is exactly 3, not approximately 3.1416." now that is a real gem
I wonder if he received any reply, and, if so, what it said.
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 2
- Total points
- 267
- Total comments
- 80
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009-05-05 | Letter to the Patent Office from Donald Knuth (1995) | mcav | 5 | 0 |
| 2010-01-07 | Letter to the Patent Office from Professor Donald Knuth (circa 1994)First breakout | fogus | 125 | 31 |
| 2014-06-28 | Letter to the Patent Office From Professor Donald Knuth (1994)Best thread · Latest 20+ point return | espeed | 135 | 48 |
| 2020-09-30 | Letter to the Patent Office from Professor Donald Knuth (1994) | pncnmnp | 2 | 1 |