Donald Knuth Unveils iTeX Platform Amidst Global Patent Filing Push

River Valley Technologies

Knuth argues that abandoning traditional archival stability for a tiered, subscription-based ecosystem is necessary to incentivize modern high-performance software development.

AI-assisted summary of An Earthshaking Announcement — original source. Check the original for full context.

Source published: 2011-07-19

Key ideas

Don Knuth delivered a deadpan satirical keynote parodying Steve Jobs, announcing iTeX as the ground-up successor to TeX designed to rectify 32 years of outdated architectural assumptions. (0:00)
iTeX eliminates legacy fixed-point arithmetic, macros, and rigid document bounds in favor of Scheme-based development, native XML inputs, arbitrary directional text flow, and 3D voxel typesetting. (5:54)
The project is framed as a proprietary commercial enterprise developed secretly in Armenia under 'Project Mariana,' adopting an aggressive SaaS multi-level referral pricing structure. (15:00)
System outputs extend far beyond paper and screens, incorporating CNC manufacturing, automated kitchen appliance management, parameterized microblogging, and hyperbolic virtual reality environments. (30:00)

Detailed notes

## Background Published on YouTube by River Valley Technologies on July 19, 2011, this recording features a presentation by Stanford University computer scientist Don Knuth. The video was produced in association with Zeeba TV, part of the River Valley group of companies.

## TL;DR In a satirical keynote parodying Steve Jobs, Don Knuth unveils "iTeX," a fictional modern successor designed to scrap and replace TeX 78 and TeX 82. He skewers TeX's historical limitations—such as binary fixed-point arithmetic errors, scaled points, and dangerous macros—before proposing an absurdly grandiose platform that incorporates XML, Scheme, N-dimensional voxels, hyperbolic VR, smart kitchen appliance integration, and a multi-level marketing subscription scheme. Claiming the system was built in secret by over 100 former Soviet defense programmers in Armenia, Knuth ends up blaming a canceled live demonstration on sudden hardware glitches and pending patent secrecy.

## Atmosphere & style The presentation is a masterclass in deadpan academic humor, lampooning modern Silicon Valley corporate keynote culture with theatrical seriousness. Despite Knuth's grand claims of revolutionary bleeding-edge software, the visual reality of him shuffling handwritten overhead projector transparencies and manually ringing a handheld brass bell creates an affectionate, comical contrast. The audience frequently breaks into warm laughter and applause as Knuth methodically escalates the satire from pedantic technical grievances to outright pyramid-scheme absurdity.

## Bulletin - [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=0s) Don Knuth delivered a deadpan satirical keynote parodying Steve Jobs, announcing iTeX as the ground-up successor to TeX designed to rectify 32 years of outdated architectural assumptions. - [05:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=354s) iTeX eliminates legacy fixed-point arithmetic, macros, and rigid document bounds in favor of Scheme-based development, native XML inputs, arbitrary directional text flow, and 3D voxel typesetting. - [15:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=900s) The project is framed as a proprietary commercial enterprise developed secretly in Armenia under 'Project Mariana,' adopting an aggressive SaaS multi-level referral pricing structure. - [30:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1800s) System outputs extend far beyond paper and screens, incorporating CNC manufacturing, automated kitchen appliance management, parameterized microblogging, and hyperbolic virtual reality environments.

## Key takeaways - [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=0s) Knuth parodies dramatic corporate tech unveilings, presenting iTeX with handwritten transparencies after claiming security risks prevented using digital slides. - [02:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=120s) Legacy TeX's decimal-to-binary fixed-point arithmetic is highlighted as fundamentally flawed, causing rounding discrepancies where 0.4pt can equal .39999pt. - [02:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=120s) iTeX abolishes TeX's strict dimension boundaries, supporting arbitrary microscopic and astronomical units, exact rational expressions, and native irrational constants. - [05:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=354s) The new low-level input format adopts an XML subset and Unicode, replacing backslash control codes and opaque whitespace mechanics. - [05:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=354s) Typesetting expands natively into 3D voxel space for additive manufacturing, with architectural accommodations prepared for higher-dimensional spaces. - [09:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=580s) Macros are declared obsolete and replaced by intelligent, Microsoft Word-style menus, preset recipes, gesture controls, and voice recognition. - [09:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=580s) Proper pronunciation of iTeX requires precise Mandarin pitch contours and must be accompanied by the physical ringing of a handbell. - [15:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=900s) Knuth humorously disavows solo programming, attributing iTeX development to Project Mariana—a clandestine team of over 100 former Soviet-era defense coders recruited in Armenia. - [20:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1200s) The entire platform is implemented in Scheme and embraces every popular software engineering buzzword while explicitly rejecting formal methods and literate programming. - [20:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1200s) Unlike open-source TeX82, iTeX operates as a commercial cloud subscription with multi-level referral incentives that allow users to turn software usage into a profit center. - [20:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1200s) Knuth repudiates archival stability, claiming that in the modern internet era no document older than 30 months warrants preservation. - [23:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1425s) iTeX incorporates full symbolic math engines, automated billing workflows, on-demand physical publishing networks, and live virtual reality avatars in hyperbolic space. - [30:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1800s) Direct output integration spans physical CNC machinery, laser cutters, embroidery devices, and automated smart-kitchen appliances connected to home pantries. - [31:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1885s) The planned live demonstration was canceled due to sudden hardware glitches, with technical inquiries deflected pending official patent filings and a global press conference.

## Detailed walkthrough ### [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=0s) Unveiling the Successor to TeX

Don Knuth begins his presentation by invoking the spirit of San Francisco, observing how fitting it is to gather in the very city where Steve Jobs has delivered so many dramatic, high-profile product announcements. Adopting a deadpan, Jobs-style keynote delivery, Knuth announces that he has been working in secret for quite some time on a revolutionary project: a true successor to TeX. Acknowledging that the dizzying pace of computers and the Internet has invalidated virtually every design assumption he made when he originally brought TeX to life in 1978, Knuth explains that he grew increasingly restless with his past work. As Knuth declared to the audience, “Finally, I woke up one morning with the realization that I couldn't be happy unless I came up with a new system that rectifies my former mistakes.”

To answer that call, Knuth decided to scrap both TeX78 and TeX82 entirely and rebuild the whole architecture from scratch. As he moves across the stage so he can gesticulate with his right hand, he manages technical friction with the podium and equipment, joking self-deprecatingly that Steve Jobs always rehearses his presentations far better than he does. He also sheepishly apologizes for presenting with handwritten overhead projector transparencies rather than slick slides, explaining with mock seriousness that unexpected trouble struck his computer at home and he refused to risk security leaks by putting his confidential presentation on anybody else's machine.

[02:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=120s) Binary Arithmetic, Arbitrary Units, and Broken Dimensions

Addressing the technical foundation, Knuth targets what he considers the most egregious design flaw in original TeX: the clash between its internal binary arithmetic and its decimal user interface. Because TeX approximates decimal values in binary fixed-point arithmetic, a test like asking whether `0.4pt` equals `.39999pt` bizarrely evaluates to true. Worse still, if one assigns `\dimen0 = 0.4pt`—the standard width of a printed rule—and multiplies that dimension by ten, TeX returns an unexpected, inaccurate result. Knuth mocks this artifact of fixed-point rounding, exclaiming: “Are mathematicians supposed to like this? Are computer scientists supposed to like this? Is anybody supposed to like this?”

```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: Dimensional Inadequacies of Legacy TeX accDescr: Diagram illustrating the limits of TeX fixed-point scaled point representation compared to modern scale demands.

subgraph LegacyLimits["Legacy TeX Limitations"] SP["Min: 1 Scaled Point (1/65536 pt) ~53 Ångströms (Too large for Nanotech)"] MD["Max: \\maxdimen (~18.89 ft / 5.76 m) Too small for modern posters and banners"] Fixed["Fixed-point binary fractions e.g. 0.4pt ≈.39999pt"] end

subgraph NewEngine["Successor System Engine"] Exact["Exact Rational Dimensions e.g. 3/7 yard"] Irrational["Exact Irrationals e.g. π, √2 for perfect circles"] Arbitrary["Arbitrarily large or tiny units Unlimited dynamic scale"] end

LegacyLimits -.->|"Replaced by"| NewEngine ```

From arithmetic errors, Knuth pivots to TeX's archaic unit system. TeX historically measured all distances in integer multiples of a "scaled point" ($sp$), defined as $1/65536$ of a printer's point, with the printer's point itself set to $1/72.27$ of an inch. Knuth derides this legacy convention: “Nobody remembers or cares about the old-fashioned units that printers used in the pre-internet era.” Graphic designers today operate on Adobe's standard of exactly 72 points per inch, yet TeX stubbornly relegates that universal modern measure to the awkward status of a "big point" (`bp`).

Furthermore, TeX's maximum dimension (`\maxdimen`) caps out at $16383.9999847412109375$ points—roughly 18.8921175 feet or 5.7583 meters—making it impossible to typeset contemporary large-format banners or posters. Conversely, in the era of nanotechnology, a single scaled point is far too coarse, measuring over 53 Ångström units. In Knuth's brand-new system, all these constraints vanish: - Any well-defined unit can be specified at arbitrary scale, from microscopic to astronomical. - Measurements can be stated as exact rational quantities, such as $3/7$ of a yard. - Irrational constants like $\pi$ and $\sqrt{2}$ are natively supported, allowing circles and geometric curves to be rendered with mathematical perfection.

[05:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=354s) Escaping Moore's Law: XML, Unicode, and N-Dimensional Voxels

Knuth confesses that his mindset 32 years ago was paralyzed by an obsession with computational efficiency because he failed to anticipate hardware trajectories. As Knuth admitted, “I didn't realize in a few years, I wouldn't care whether *The Art of Computer Programming* could be typeset in a half a second rather than in five seconds.” That tunnel vision infected *The TeXbook* with bizarre quirks, such as using backslashes for control sequences—a convention seen nowhere else—and opaque whitespace rules where users never knew whether an input space would actually generate a space.

To modernize, the basic low-level input format of the new engine is structured strictly as a subset of XML, combined with native Unicode encoding for universal coverage of human and artificial languages. The system incorporates real-time automated spelling correction, grammar checking, and automated aesthetic page-layout refinement across all languages simultaneously. While early TeX was restricted to left-to-right text (with subsequent community extensions patching in right-to-left scripts), the new engine treats directionality as completely arbitrary: text flows horizontally, vertically, diagonally, or along arbitrary curves.

Taking the concept further into modern hardware, Knuth points out that two dimensions are obsolete now that 3D printing is ubiquitous. The new system operates natively in three-dimensional space using voxels instead of pixels, and Knuth notes with a grin that he has built in extensible architectural hooks for four or more dimensions should string theorists eventually be vindicated.

[09:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=580s) Multimodal Hyperdocuments, the Death of Macros, and the Ring of the Bell

Expanding into digital spaces, Knuth explains that hypertext grants infinite dimensionality, making hyperdocuments and dynamic web pages central to the new platform. By adapting classic TeX concepts of boxes, glue, and penalties to time and media streams, the engine formats full multimedia works featuring stereoscopic audio and animated video. Input and output boundaries are erased: cameras, video feeds, microphones, real-time GPS coordinates, motion sensors, accelerometers, and full haptic force-feedback systems are supported out of the box. The old paradigm of WYSIWYG ("What You See Is What You Get") is augmented by WYHIWYG ("What You Hear Is What You Get") and WYFIWYG ("What You Feel Is What You Get"). Every output can loop back as an input; for instance, MIDI performance data can generate standard musical notation, which can be transposed, split into orchestral instrument parts, or re-routed straight back into a synthesizer.

```mermaid flowchart LR accTitle: Bidirectional Multimodal Pipeline accDescr: Flowchart showing the interchangeable nature of multimodal inputs and outputs in Knuth's new system.

subgraph Inputs["Multimodal Inputs"] Sensors["GPS, Accelerometer & Haptics"] AV["Camera, Microphone & MIDI"] DocIn["Hypertext & Voice Commands"] end

subgraph Engine["Unified Layout Engine"] Boxes["Dynamic Boxes, Glue & Penalties"] Menu["AI Recipe Customization"] end

subgraph Outputs["Dynamic Outputs"] Score["Printed Scores & 3D Voxels"] Synth["Synthesizers & MIDI Devices"] HapticOut["WYHIWYG & WYFIWYG Experiences"] end

Inputs --> Engine Engine --> Outputs Outputs -.->|"Re-ingested as input"| Engine ```

Crucially, Knuth reveals that the new platform completely eliminates macros. Characterizing macro packages as dangerous, difficult, and antiquated relics of the mid-twentieth century, Knuth announced: “Nowadays no one really needs macros, which we all know can be difficult to write and even dangerous.” Instead, the user experience is entirely driven by expansive, intelligent menus modeled after Microsoft Word, backed by expert pre-set recipes, voice recognition, and gesture tracking that adapt to individual habits for instantaneous typesetting.

Finally, Knuth prepares the room for the unveiling of the project's identity and visual logo, placing a dedicated slide plate onto the overhead projector to reveal the name. He instructs the audience on how the name must be properly pronounced: - It must be voiced musically using Mandarin tones. - The first syllable, "ee", takes a dipping third tone where the pitch drops down and then rises. - The second syllable rises sharply like an inquisitive question. - Every verbal pronunciation of the name must strictly be accompanied by the manual ringing of an acoustic handheld bell, which Knuth rings on stage, completing the theatrical spoof announcement.

[15:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=900s) Rethinking TeX, Project Mariana, and Secret Soviet Talent

Don Knuth continues his satirical presentation, explaining that the auditory bell in his new system, iTeX (pronounced like "e-text"), is entirely optional and omitted in documents lacking sound, while the logo becomes genuinely three-dimensional in 3D documents. He notes that he decided to pronounce "TeX" with a soft "x" instead of the traditional Greek chi sound, remarking: “I decided to go with the flow since almost nobody outside of Greece has ever pronounced tech the way with the correct text.” Reflecting on his past work, he confesses that while he wrote TeX 78 completely alone, he has now learned better: “After many years, I've finally come to realize that my main strength lies in the ability to delegate work and to lead large projects rather than to go it alone.” He jokes that programming was never his forte anyway, citing the 1,289 bugs he had to remove from TeX and the 571 from METAFONT.

```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: Origin of Project Mariana accDescr: Diagram tracing Knuth's visit to Armenia to the founding of Project Mariana. A["Visit to Armenian Academy of Sciences (Summer 2006)"] --> B["Discovery of Classified Soviet-Era Defense Programmers"] B --> C["Desire to Match Stanford Colleagues' Commercial Wealth"] C --> D["Formation of Project Mariana (100+ Top Coders)"] D --> E["Development of Proprietary iTeX Platform"] ```

Knuth shares that his breakthrough came during the summer of 2006 on a trip to the Academy of Sciences in Armenia. There, he discovered that an immense amount of sophisticated, classified defense programming had been conducted in secret at a Yerevan institute during the Soviet era. Eager to replicate the commercial success of his Stanford colleagues who had founded companies and become rich, Knuth recruited over 100 of these elite programmers into a clandestine venture dubbed "Project Mariana." Addressing internet rumors about their portal (`www.projectmariana.com`) and the presence of the Armenian letter *Men* (Unicode U+0544, Մ), he boasts that no outsider has breached their firewall. He also reveals an inside secret: "Mariana" is an exact anagram of "Armenian."

[20:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1200s) Silver Bullets, Scheme, and Pyramid Pricing

Turning to implementation, Knuth explains that the team decided to write all of iTeX in Scheme. To ensure absolute success, they adopted every single "silver bullet" created by software engineering over the decades: information hiding, agile development, extreme programming, use case modeling, debugging, lookahead design, waterfall modeling, unit testing, refactoring, rapid prototyping, and aspect-oriented programming. Conversely, they discarded formal methods because “everybody knows that formal methods are strictly academic,” and abandoned his signature methodology of literate programming because writing documentation had proved to be far too much of a pain.

```mermaid flowchart LR accTitle: iTeX MLM Subscription Model accDescr: Diagram illustrating the referral discount and income structure of the iTeX subscription. Sub["Monthly Subscriber Base"] --> Ref10["Refer 10 New Members"] Ref10 --> Free["100% Discount (Free Software)"] Ref10 --> Ref11["Refer 11+ Members"] Ref11 --> Profit["Guaranteed Lifetime Income"] ```

Knuth insists it is impossible for iTeX to be free and open-source like TeX 82, as the programmers must be paid handsomely. Instead, he outlines an aggressive software-as-a-service model with monthly subscriptions and cloud limits (40 hours times 16 gigabytes of computation), tiered geographically: $99 per month in California, €69 in Germany, and 19.99 drams in Armenia. To spur growth, the plan incorporates a multi-level referral mechanism where subscribers receive a recurring 10% discount for every user they enroll. Knuth openly admits that bringing in 11 people turns the subscription into a personal profit center. Defending the lack of archival stability, he rejects his famous long-term philosophy: “Once upon a time I took great care to ensure that TeX 82 would be truly archival so that the results obtainable today would produce identical output 50 years from now. But that was manifestly foolish.” In the modern internet age, he insists, nothing older than 30 months is even worth reading.

- Subscription covers unlimited local use on one or two computers or capped cloud usage. - First-year promotional incentive includes a one-month free trial. - Discounts are offered for seniors, children under five, and students. - System software receives rolling updates daily rather than static, archival releases.

[23:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1425s) Economic Ecosystem, On-Demand Publishing, and Hyperbolic VR

Knuth claims iTeX will create tens of thousands of jobs and energize the world economy. Third-party developers will sell plugins for pennies a week, and authors can monetize their work directly through integrated commerce tools handling billing, manufacturing, and distribution. Readers can assemble blog posts into bespoke printed and bound volumes shipped to their doorsteps like a modernized, custom Sears Roebuck catalog, with iTeX automatically divvying up royalties between the author, printer, and binder. Traditional manuals are replaced by three tiers of online help—for "dummies," for "wizards," and direct one-on-one live chat with certified iTeX helpers, a role available to members seeking flexible work-from-home employment.

Moving to core capabilities, Knuth explains that iTeX goes far beyond basic typesetting. It handles symbolic algebra, power series, matrices, partial differential equations, and convex optimization, fully integrated with curve plotting, satellite mapping, and voice synthesis to enable GPS-guided navigation from within a hyperdocument. Math mode has been converted into an evaluatable, unambiguous syntax akin to MathML:

> “This makes the formulas longer and more difficult to type, but that's a small price to pay for the added functionality.”

Finally, Knuth details real-time collaborative features where users interact via avatars in virtual spaces. By adopting hyperbolic geometry rather than Euclidean space, an exponential number of user avatars can occupy a bounded distance from one another, vastly outperforming platforms like Second Life. Hyperdocuments can also assimilate real-time inputs from webcams, traffic monitors, medical heart monitors, and seismographs, complete with built-in facial recognition, speech recognition, and professional image manipulation tools.

[30:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1800s) Physical Fabrication, Automated Cooking, and Social Networking

Don Knuth continues outlining the astonishing, all-encompassing scope of the new system's output capabilities. Moving far beyond traditional paper and screen displays, the output can be automatically formatted for modern fabrication equipment such as laser cutters, embroidery machines, 3D printers, milling machines, and other CNC (computer numerical control) devices, enabling physical goods to be manufactured and shipped directly to consumers. To demonstrate its practical everyday utility, Knuth reveals that one of the earliest plug-ins will feature an interactive cookbook designed to interface directly with domestic kitchen infrastructure—connecting seamlessly to the kitchen stove, oven, pantry, and refrigerator. With this setup, users can automatically prepare meals utilizing the ingredients already available in the house, or automatically replenish supplies through online ordering whenever items run low.

```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: System Architecture and Output Capabilities accDescr: Diagram showing the flow of document input through the system into automated fabrication, smart kitchen appliances, and social media.

subgraph Input ["Source Document"] Doc["Dynamic Hyperdocument"] end

subgraph Core ["System Engine"] Engine["Unified Formatting Engine"] end

subgraph Fabrication ["Digital Fabrication"] CNC["CNC Devices & Milling Machines"] Print3D["3D Printers & Laser Cutters"] Embroidery["Embroidery Machines"] end

subgraph Domestic ["Smart Home Plug-in"] Kitchen["Interactive Cookbook"] Appliance["Stove, Oven, Refrigerator & Pantry"] end

subgraph Social ["Social Networking"] Tweets["Parameterized Microblogging"] Sharing["Life Encapsulation & Document Sharing"] end

Doc --> Engine Engine --> Fabrication Engine --> Domestic Engine --> Social Kitchen --> Appliance ```

The system also incorporates sophisticated, native facilities for social networking. Reading hyperdocuments authored by others is entirely seamless, and sending or receiving tweets is made even simpler. Breaking away from arbitrary industry constraints, Knuth points out that tweets are no longer bound to a rigid limit of 140 Unicode characters; rather, the length limit is treated as a fully customizable parameter. A user can, for instance, configure the environment to accept only tweets of 50 characters or fewer if they prefer brevity. Ultimately, the software is pitched as a total lifestyle platform: Don Knuth explains that “With E-TeX, your entire life can be encapsulated into one dynamic hyper document downloadable by anybody you designate.”

- Output targets include laser cutters, embroidery machinery, 3D printers, and industrial milling machines. - The automated kitchen plug-in inventories current stock and triggers online replenishment orders as ingredients are consumed. - Microblogging tweet length is completely parameterized by the user rather than constrained to the standard 140-character maximum.

---

[31:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1885s) The Canceled Live Demo, Hardware Glitches, and Patent Secrecy

Addressing the audience directly, Knuth confesses that his original plan had been to conduct a live demonstration of the system during the lecture rather than merely reciting a catalog of its groundbreaking features. In fact, the software was intended to generate every single slide projected during the presentation, which Knuth wryly notes should have been an effortless benchmark: “Because, of course, the illustrations for a technical talk are among the simplest of all documents to create.” However, delivering the live showcase proved impossible at the last moment due to unexpected hardware glitches. Knuth appeals to the audience’s sympathy, noting how extraordinarily complex and difficult it has been to coordinate all the disparate components and subsystems into a harmonious whole.

Despite these immediate setbacks, Knuth reassures the crowd that development is on the brink of completion. His collaborators and coworkers have assured him that the platform is practically ready for its first major public release. The team plans to convene a worldwide press conference to formally unveil the technology as soon as it officially launches, which they anticipate will occur in the following month. For the present moment, however, Knuth is strictly barred from revealing further technical specifications, as the organization must wait until all pending patent applications are officially filed. He warmly concludes his prepared address by predicting that anyone who tests the software will instantly rush to sign up as a charter member, before yielding the floor ahead of the banquet.

---

[32:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1970s) Audience Banter, Version Numbers, and Potter-Ziby Units

As the room erupts into applause and attendees prepare for the evening banquet, several audience members attempt to extract additional details by shouting questions from the floor. Knuth playfully parries the inquiries, warning the audience that his hands are legally tied. Feigning corporate compliance, Knuth remarks, “The lawyers have asked me not to answer any…” as attendees ask about the software's current version number. Refusing to divulge proprietary state secrets before the planned media rollout, Knuth tells them that they will simply have to wait for the official press conference to learn about release numbers and magazine publications.

When an audience member asks a final technical question regarding measurement standards and unit systems, Knuth confirms with a smile that the “Potter-Ziby” unit is indeed supported as one of the standard, native measurement units hardcoded into the platform. With the audience laughing and applauding the satirical performance, Knuth thanks the crowd and brings the session to an end.

- Knuth claims corporate lawyers instructed him not to field technical inquiries prior to the filing of patent applications. - Details regarding version numbers and upcoming print articles are withheld until the global press conference. - Knuth officially confirms that Potter-Ziby units are recognized as standard internal units of measure within the system.

## Mentioned Don Knuth, Steve Jobs, TeX, TeX78, TeX82, METAFONT, The Art of Computer Programming, The TeXbook, Project Mariana, iTeX, Scheme, Microsoft Word, Adobe, Armenian Academy of Sciences, Stanford University, Sears Roebuck, Second Life, River Valley Technologies

## Video description Don Knuth Stanford University

Zeeba TV (http://zeeba.tv) is part of the River Valley group of Companies. http://www.rivervalleytechnologies.com/

[Source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA)

中文简报

高德纳在全球专利申请热潮中发布iTeX平台高德纳认为，放弃传统的归档稳定性、转向分级订阅生态系统，对于激励现代高性能软件开发而言是必要的。在一场模仿史蒂夫·乔布斯的讽刺主题演讲中，唐纳德·高德纳（Don Knuth）发布了名为“iTeX”的虚构现代后继系统，旨在彻底废弃并取代TeX 78和TeX 82。他尖锐抨击了TeX的历史局限性——例如二进制定点算术误差、比例点以及危险的宏——随后提出了一个极其庞大荒诞的平台，该平台集成了XML、Scheme、N维体素、双曲虚拟现实、智能厨房家电联动以及多层级分销订阅体系。高德纳声称该系统是由100多名身在亚美尼亚的前苏联国防程序员秘密构建的，但最终以突发硬件故障和待批专利保密为由，取消了现场演示。唐纳德·高德纳发表了一场一本正经的模仿史蒂夫·乔布斯的讽刺主题演讲，宣布iTeX作为TeX从零开始构建的后继产品，旨在纠正32年来陈旧的架构假设。 (0:00) iTeX摒弃了传统的定点算术、宏和僵化的文档边界，转而支持基于Scheme的开发、原生XML输入、任意方向的文本流以及3D体素排版。 (5:54) 该项目被包装为在亚美尼亚以“马里亚纳项目”为代号秘密开发的专有商业事业，并采用了激进的SaaS多级推荐定价结构。 (15:00) 系统输出范围远超纸张和屏幕，还融合了数控机床制造、自动化厨房家电管理、参数化微博发布以及双曲虚拟现实环境。 (30:00)

Reading summary

In a deadpan parody of high-profile corporate technology launches, Donald Knuth unveiled "iTeX," a commercial, ground-up replacement for TeX intended to replace the system's foundational assumptions with modern computing paradigms. Overhauling Arithmetic and Dimensional Scalability (2:00) Knuth criticized legacy TeX for relying on fixed-point binary arithmetic that generated rounding discrepancies against its decimal interface, such as evaluating 0.4pt as equal to .39999pt. He also attacked TeX's reliance on historical printer points (1/72.27 inch) rather than Adobe's 72-point standard, its restrictive scaled-point resolution of 53 Ångströms that hinders nanotech applications, and its maximum dimension limit of approximately 18.89 feet (5.76 meters). Under the proposed successor engine, dimensional constraints are eliminated in favor of arbitrary scales ranging from microscopic to astronomical. Dimensions can be expressed as exact rational values, such as 3/7 of a yard, alongside native support for irrational constants like π and the square root of 2 for precise geometric curves, as well as unconventional units like the Potter-Ziby. Multimodal Layout and Digital-Physical Fabrication (5:54) The new architecture discards macro packages, control sequence backslashes, and opaque whitespace rules in favor of an XML subset, native Unicode, and adaptive graphical interface menus. Document layouts support arbitrary non-linear flow along curves and diagonals, operating in 3D voxels to accommodate 3D printing, with architectural hooks planned for higher dimensions. Extending classic concepts of boxes and glue to time-based media, the platform formats stereoscopic audio and animated video into interactive hyperdocuments. Outputs and inputs are reciprocal: sensor feeds, haptics, and musical MIDI streams are ingested interchangeably, while output targets span CNC milling machinery, laser cutters, automated cooking appliances, and parameterized microblogging feeds. Project Mariana and Software Engineering Buzzwords (15:00) Knuth attributed the development of the proprietary engine to "Project Mariana," a clandestine endeavor established during a 2006 visit to Yerevan, Armenia. To bypass individual programming limitations, Knuth enlisted over 100 former Soviet-era defense software specialists under an anagrammatic enterprise name, working behind protected network infrastructure. The team implemented the entire system in Scheme, claiming to incorporate every mainstream software engineering methodology, including agile development, extreme programming, refactoring, and aspect-oriented programming. In contrast, formal verification methods were rejected as purely academic exercises, and Knuth's established practice of literate programming was abandoned due to documentation overhead. Commercial SaaS Pricing and Multi-Level Licensing (20:00) Departing from the open-source distribution of TeX 82, Knuth outlined a commercial Software-as-a-Service model to compensate engineers, featuring geographic subscription tiers ($99 monthly in California, €69 in Germany, and 19.99 drams in Armenia) with limits on computational time and memory. The structure includes a multi-level referral mechanism where enrolling ten members offsets subscription costs entirely, and additional referrals yield recurring profits. Knuth explicitly repudiated his historical priority of 50-year archival stability, arguing that internet-era materials older than 30 months carry little relevance. Consequently, the software adopts continuous rolling updates instead of immutable archival releases. Knuth canceled a planned live demonstration of the platform, citing unexpected hardware integration faults, and declined to reveal version numbers or technical documentation on grounds of pending patent applications and legal constraints prior to a promised global launch.

精炼阅读摘要

计算机科学家唐·高德纳（Don Knuth）在一场戏仿科技巨头发布会的演讲中，以反讽幽默的形式宣布推出TeX的继任系统“iTeX”。该系统声称将通过推翻传统排版底层的算术假设、引入全双工多模态超文档、实施封闭商业化及多层分销订阅模式，来矫正早期设计中的局限。突破底层算术精度与几何尺寸瓶颈 (2:00) Knuth严厉指责了初代TeX在底层二进制定点数算术与十进制用户界面之间的冲突。在经典实现中，系统将0.4pt与0.39999pt等同判定，且在变量放大十倍时产生意料之外的舍入偏差。同时，传统系统以1/65536磅作为基准的“比例点”（scaled point）约为53埃，在纳米技术时代显得过于粗糙；而约合18.89英尺（5.76米）的最大尺寸上限，也彻底阻碍了现代大幅面海报与横幅的制作排版需求。为重构这一基础，新平台废除了传统印刷单位对现代标准的掣肘，允许用户在微观至天文尺度上使用任意缩放度量衡。系统直接原生支持如3/7码等精确有理数，以及π和根号2等无理数常量，以实现数学上精确的几何曲线渲染。在底层格式上，新引擎采用XML子集与Unicode统一编码，支持跨语言的实时自动纠错与排版美化；排版方向不再受限于传统横向，而是允许文本沿任意曲线流向延伸，并以体素（voxel）替代像素原生支持三维乃至更高维度的空间排版。废除宏包机制与全双工多模态超文档 (9:40) 在交互与呈现维度上，新系统彻底废弃了宏（macros）机制，Knuth将其定性为二十世纪中叶遗留下来的危险且陈旧的技术包袱。取而代之的是仿照Microsoft Word构建的交互式智能菜单、预设专家配方、语音识别与手势追踪输入。系统将经典排版中的“盒子、胶水与惩罚”模型扩展至时间与媒体流，衍生出涵盖立体声的“所听即所得”（WYHIWYG）与力反馈的“所感即所得”（WYFIWYG）体验。该平台打破了输入与输出的界限，使两者形成可回流的双向闭环。例如，MIDI音乐数据既能排版为专业乐谱并拆分交响乐分谱，亦可直接重新导回合成器发声；超文档同时支持心电图、交通探头、网络摄像头及地震仪等实时传感器信号的并入。在多人协作方面，系统利用双曲几何空间替代欧几里得空间，使得指数级的用户虚拟化身能在有限视距内实现实时互动，并将数学公式全面改造为类似于MathML的可计算、无歧义语法。马里亚纳项目与多层分销云订阅模型 (20:00) 工程研发方面，Knuth宣称该平台由其在2006年访问亚美尼亚期间秘密设立的“马里亚纳项目”（Project Mariana）推进，集结了百余名前苏联绝密级防御领域的顶尖程序员。代码完全采用Scheme语言编写，团队采纳了包括敏捷开发、极限编程、切面编程与单元测试在内的全部软件工程方法，但公开抛弃了形式化方法，并放弃了高德纳本人的核心思想“文学编程”（literate programming），理由是撰写技术文档过于痛苦。不同于TeX 82的自由开源传统，该系统被设计为高度商业化的软件即服务（SaaS）模式，对计算时长与内存实施云端配额（40小时乘16GB）。资费依据地域实行差异化定价，如加利福尼亚州每月99美元、德国每月69欧元、亚美尼亚每月19.99德拉姆。为加速扩张，系统捆绑了多层级营销（MLM）返佣机制：每推荐一名新订阅者即可获得10%的持续费用减免，推荐超过11人则可实现被动盈利。Knuth同时颠覆了过去的长期归档哲学，声称在现代互联网环境下任何超过30个月的文档均已失去阅读价值，软件将转为每日滚动更新。实体智造集成、演示中断与专利壁垒 (30:00) 新引擎的输出领域进一步延伸至物理制造环节，排版指令可直接驱动激光切割机、电脑刺绣机、数控机床（CNC）与3D打印机以生产实体消费品。系统甚至包含针对智慧家庭的互动烹饪插件，能够直接与烤箱、冰箱及储藏室联动，依据现有库存自动烹调菜肴并在原料耗尽时触发在线补货。在社交网络方面，系统打破了140个Unicode字符的微型博客限制，允许用户自定义长度参数，声称能将个人生活全面封装为可供下载的动态超文档。然而，原定用于生成全套演讲胶片的现场实机演示因“突发硬件故障”而被迫取消。Knuth向听众解释了协调多模块系统的复杂性，但坚称系统研发已近尾声，计划于次月召开全球新闻发布会。面对现场听众关于软件版本号与技术规范的连续追问，Knuth以律师要求等待全部专利申请正式提交为由予以回避，仅在幽默应答中确认系统已将虚构的“Potter-Ziby”纳为平台内置的标准计量单位。本场演讲通过戏仿科技行业发布会的夸张修辞、全能技术承诺与多层级营销商业模式，对现代软件工业过度追逐工程概念、闭源订阅与浮躁商业化的风气进行了深刻的反讽。它借虚构的iTeX解构了技术泡沫，同时从反面凸显了经典TeX在严谨数学计算、开源共享以及半个世纪长效归档稳定性方面所坚守的核心价值。

Detailed notes — zh

## Background 该视频由 River Valley Technologies 旗下 Zeeba TV 于 2011 年 7 月 19 日发布在 YouTube 平台。视频记录了斯坦福大学教授高德纳（Donald Knuth）在旧金山进行的一场题为《震撼发布》（An Earthshaking Announcement）的主题演讲。 ## TL;DR 高德纳在演讲中模仿史蒂夫·乔布斯的新品发布会风格，戏剧性地宣布推翻自己 30 多年前开创的 TeX 78 与 TeX 82，转而推出一套彻底颠覆的下一代超媒体系统“iTeX”（发音为带有声调的 E-TeX）。他声称新系统摒弃了反斜杠宏、二进制浮点误差和固定平面排版，全面拥抱 XML、Scheme、Unicode 与三维空间体素，甚至集成了多层级返利订阅、智能厨房联动与双曲几何多用户交互。整场演讲汇集了海量科技流行语与商业讽刺，最后以“遭遇硬件故障无法现场演示”以及“律师禁止剧透更多细节”等经典极客幽默戏谑收尾。 ## Atmosphere & style 整场演讲洋溢着荒诞、辛辣却又一本正经的极客幽默感。高德纳一边用手写胶片和老式高射投影仪做着最传统的学术展示，一边摇晃手铃、一本正经地戏仿硅谷巨头的商业布道与保密狂热，反差感拉满。现场笑声与掌声此起彼伏，观众沉浸在一场将学术严谨与科技界狂妄泡沫解构殆尽的顶级冷面滑稽秀中。 ## Bulletin - [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=0s) 高德纳（Donald Knuth）戏仿乔布斯产品发布会风格，宣布废弃旧版 TeX 78 与 TeX 82，推出彻底重构的新系统“iTeX”（发音为带有普通话调值的 E-TeX，并以实体摇铃声作为 Logo 核心组件）。 - [07:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=450s) 新系统彻底颠覆传统排版架构：废弃反斜杠宏编程与文学编程，底层基于 XML 与 Scheme 开发，引入无理数任意精度排版，并将 3D 打印体素（voxels）与 CNC 加工纳入核心排版维度。 - [20:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1247s) 商业化上全面摒弃公有领域免费开源模式，由代号为“Project Mariana”的上百位亚美尼亚程序员闭门研发，采用云算力订阅制与拉新 10 人即可终身免费的传销式推荐返利机制。 - [30:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1852s) 该系统演进为涵盖符号计算、双曲几何虚拟空间、现实传感器流与智能厨房互联的超级终端，但高德纳因突发“硬件故障”取消现场演示，并以专利申报与律师封口令为由推迟公布细节。 ## Key takeaways - [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=0s) 模仿科技发布会并决意推翻 TeX 架构：高德纳以乔布斯式的宏大叙事开场，坦言 1978 年以来的排版假设在互联网时代已全盘失效，决定从零开始全面重构排版系统。 - [02:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=150s) 抨击底层二进制与外部十进制的脱节：指出旧 TeX 内部采用二进制浮点但向用户提供十进制界面的根本缺陷，导致如 0.4pt 判定等于 0.3999pt 等荒谬的舍入误差。 - [02:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=150s) 弃用传统缩放点与旧印刷单位体系：彻底废除 1/65536 点的整数“缩放点”（sp）及 1 英寸等于 72.27 点的旧标准，全面顺应 Adobe 的 1 英寸=72 磅规则，并原生支持精确分数与无理数（π、√2）。 - [05:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=300s) 突破排版尺度边界以适配宏观与微观应用：打破旧 TeX 约 5.76 米的最大尺寸上限与 1 缩放点的下限，使其既能排版超大建筑户外海报，又能胜任埃米级纳米精密排版。 - [05:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=300s) 深刻反思早期设计中的“效率至上”执念：高德纳反思早年未领会摩尔定律的潜力，为追求极致算力节省而引入了反斜杠控制符和混乱的空格忽略规则，在现代算力充裕环境下已变成历史负债。 - [07:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=450s) 底层全面转向 XML 与 Unicode 体系：新系统完全构建在 XML 子集与 Unicode 编码之上，实现全球自然语言无缝混排，并内置全自动拼写检查、语法校对、连字与字偶距处理。 - [07:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=450s) 排版维度从二维平面跃升至三维体素：支持水平、垂直、对角线及任意曲线排版，以 3D 打印的立体体素（voxel）替代像素，甚至预留了弦理论适用之四维以上扩展接口。 - [10:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=600s) 彻底废除宏机制，走向多模态感官驱动：宣布“宏已过时且充满危险”，系统全面改用类似 Word 的手势/语音菜单与专家配方驱动，并深度集成触觉反馈、GPS 定位与动作感知。 - [10:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=600s) 确立多媒体产品命名与摇铃声效 Logo：正式命名为“iTeX”（发音为普通话三声与二声调值的 E-TeX），现场摇响实体金属铃铛并声明铃声也是软件 Logo 不可分割的一部分。 - [15:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=900s) 告别个人苦干，组建 Project Mariana 研发军团：调侃自己不擅长写代码且修过上千 Bug，转而在 2006 年访问亚美尼亚后网罗上百位前苏联顶尖防务程序员，建立防火墙内部门户秘密开发新系统。 - [18:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1130s) 大杂烩式采纳流行工程名词并弃绝形式化方法：系统使用 Scheme 编写，集齐敏捷开发、极限编程、AOP 等所有软件工程“银弹”，但坚决弃用被视为学术玩具的形式化方法，以及繁琐的文学编程。 - [20:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1247s) 按月订阅制与云算力阶梯计费：放弃公有领域免费开源分发，基础套餐提供 PC 授权与 40小时/16GB 云算力，并依据用户所在地区的网络带宽质量实施差异化月费。 - [20:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1247s) 引入网络营销式的多层级拉新返利模型：每成功推荐一人即可永久获 10% 账单返现，累计拉满 10 人即可完全免费使用软件，推荐 11 人及以上更能获得终身被动分红收入。 - [20:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1247s) 推翻跨世纪归档执念，拥抱当下动态迭代：彻底否定 TeX 82 追求五十年后排版一致的目标，宣称互联网时代超过 30 个月的内容毫无阅读价值，系统必须每天持续推送升级更新。 - [24:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1452s) 构建按需印刷电商闭环与分级咨询网络：系统集成订单、支付及按需装订物流链，废弃传统纸质手册，改设“傻瓜”、“巫师”在线帮助及会员专享一对一付费视频专家咨询。 - [26:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1610s) 吞噬现实世界数据的超媒体操作系统：集成符号计算解析、强制无歧义的 MathML 模式与车载导航，并引入非欧几里得双曲几何引擎，允许在有限视野内无冲突容纳指数级虚拟化身。 - [30:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1800s) 直连工业 CNC 制造与智能厨房生态：排版输出可无缝转换并直连激光切割机、刺绣机与 3D 打印机，更推出能联动炉灶、烤箱、冰箱及自动缺货下单的交互式烹饪食谱插件。 - [30:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1852s) 现场演示跳票与以法务保密为由收尾：坦白因硬件故障无法进行现场实时排版演示，面对台下针对内部版本号的具体追问，搬出专利申报与律师封口令推辞，宣布留待下个月全球新闻发布会揭晓。 ## Detailed walkthrough ### [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=0s) 效仿乔布斯的“震撼发布”与推翻旧 TeX 的决意高德纳（Donald Knuth）以一种充满戏剧张力的方式开启了演讲。他指出，选择在旧金山与大家会面再合适不过，因为正是在这座城市里，史蒂夫·乔布斯（Steve Jobs）曾发表过无数次轰动世界的演讲。高德纳幽默地模仿乔布斯的标志性措辞，宣布自己很荣幸能向在座各位揭晓一款“真正不可思议”（truly incredible）的杰作——一个他在暗中研发已久、用以彻底取代旧版 TeX 的全新系统。为了能自如地使用右手演示，他还特意从讲台一侧走到了另一侧。高德纳坦言，计算机技术与互联网正以令人目眩的速度重塑整个世界，而他在 1978 年最初让 TeX 运转时所依赖的各项假设，在今天几乎没有一条依然成立。日复一日，他愈发笃信：排版系统必须采取一种截然不同的全新方法。高德纳回顾自己的顿悟时刻时说道：“终于，某天早晨醒来，我意识到除非能拿出一套纠正自己昔日错误的新系统，否则我根本无法感到快乐；那将是一套引领真正进步的系统。”（“Finally, I woke up one morning with the realization that I couldn't be happy unless I came up with a new system that rectifies my former mistakes. A system that leads to real progress.”）因此，他毅然决定废弃旧有的 TeX 78 与 TeX 82，从零开始彻底重构。在准备修正早期系统最致命的设计失误时，现场设备出现了一些干扰，高德纳不得不停下来调整麦克风和投影仪，并调侃道：“其实史蒂夫的彩排工作总是做得比我好。”（“Actually, Steve always rehearses better than I did.”）引来全场会心的笑声。他指出，旧 TeX 最荒唐的设计缺陷在于：其内部底层运算完全基于二进制算术，但提供给用户的界面却百分之百是十进制。 - **模仿苹果发布会**：以乔布斯式的秘密研发与宏大叙事开场，戏谑现代科技巨头的产品发布风格。 - **推翻旧架构**：宣布废除 TeX 78 与 TeX 82，承认 30 多年前的技术前提在互联网时代已彻底过时。 - **底层与界面的矛盾**：指出旧系统内部二进制浮点与外部十进制输入之间的脱节是根本性失误。 --- ### [02:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=150s) 算术舍入谬误与弃用“缩放点”度量体系为了具象化说明二进制与十进制混用带来的荒谬后果，高德纳展示了旧 TeX 中的条件判断代码。在旧系统中，如果用户写下判断语句：若 0.4 点（point）等于 0.3999 点则输出“Yes”，系统竟然真的会回答“Yes”。更离谱的是，若将普通横线的标准宽度（0.4 点）存入 `\dimen0`，再将其乘以 10 询问结果，得到的值完全违背常理。高德纳连珠炮似地质问全场：“这到底能有多荒唐？数学家会喜欢这种东西吗？计算机科学家会喜欢这种东西吗？能有人喜欢这种东西吗？”（“How ridiculous can you get? Are mathematicians supposed to like this? Are computer scientists supposed to like this? Is anybody supposed to like this?”）随后，高德纳为自己使用手写胶片和高射投影仪、而非制作现代化的 PowerPoint 幻灯片向听众致歉。他一本正经地解释说，这是因为家里的电脑突发未知故障，而他“绝不想冒险把这些极度机密的材料拷贝到别人的机器上，以免造成安全泄露”，再次惟妙惟肖地讽刺了科技行业的保密狂热。话题回到技术本身，高德纳抨击了旧 TeX 的基本度量单位“缩放点”（scaled point, $sp$）。在旧规范中，所有尺寸都必须表达为缩放点的整数倍，即 $1\,sp = 1/65536$ 传统印刷点，而传统印刷点又被古怪地定义为 $1/72.27$ 英寸。他直斥这一设定既怪异又过时，直言在互联网时代，根本没有人在意或记得前互联网时代印刷工使用的旧单位。如今的图形设计师全都遵循 Adobe 系统的规范，认定 1 英寸恰好等于 72 点；旧 TeX 却非要顽固地把这一定义称为“大点”（big point, $bp$），完全脱离了时代。 ```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: TeX 与现代排版单位体系对比 accDescr: 对比传统 TeX 复杂的度量换算与新系统基于任意实数及 Adobe 72点/英寸的标准 subgraph OldTeX["传统 TeX 度量设计（被废弃）"] A["1 英寸 = 72.27 传统印刷点 (pt)"] --> B["1 pt = 65,536 缩放点 (sp)"] B --> C["内部强制以 sp 整数存储"] C --> D["十进制输入转二进制产生舍入误差 （如 0.4pt ≈ 0.3999pt）"] end subgraph ModernDesign["高德纳的新系统度量设计"] E["顺应 Adobe 标准 （1 英寸 = 72 磅/点）"] F["支持任意数学常数与无理数 （π, √2, 3/7 码等）"] G["彻底消除尺度边界 （支持宏观海报与纳米排版）"] end ``` --- ### [05:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=300s) 从无穷大到纳米级：支持任意精度的多维排版除了单位定义落伍，旧 TeX 在尺寸范围上的局限同样难堪大用。高德纳列举道，旧系统的最大尺寸限制 `maxdimen` 约为 16383.9999847412109375 点，换算下来只有约 18.892 英尺（约 5.7583 米）。面对当代大幅面图形设备动辄印制超大户外海报和横幅的需求，TeX 根本无能为力。而在微观极端，纳米技术的飞速发展使得传统 TeX 最小的非零尺寸（1 缩放点）对于 21 世纪的应用来说实在太庞大了——高德纳调侃道，1 缩放点“比两颗发霉的欧芹还要大，超过 53 埃米”，根本无法满足前沿精细排版。为此，新系统打破了所有人为设限，允许用户使用任意大或任意小的明确定义单位。用户不仅可以直接将长度指定为有理数形式（如七分之三码），甚至能原生使用 $\pi$ 或 $\sqrt{2}$ 这类无理数，从而让圆弧与几何图形在渲染时获得终极的绝对数学精度。高德纳自我解嘲地反思，他在 32 年前的架构设计被一种名为“效率”（efficiency）的执念严重绑架。全场哄堂大笑之中，他坦承：“我当时根本没有理解摩尔定律的深层含义。我没有意识到，几年之后我根本就不会在乎《计算机程序设计艺术》是在半秒内完成排版，还是需要花上五秒钟。”（“I didn't understand the implications of Moore's law. I didn't realize in a few years, I wouldn't care whether The Art of Computer Programming could be typeset in a half a second rather than in five seconds.”）这种坐井观天的狭隘设计在《The TeXbook》中俯拾皆是，例如引入了反斜杠等怪异字符构成的“控制序列”（control sequences），以及让无数新手困惑抓狂的空格忽略规则。 - **尺寸瓶颈的终结**：打破约 5.75 米的上限与 1 缩放点的下限，全面适配超大建筑印刷与微观排版。 - **数学级精度支持**：原生支持精确分数与无理数（$\pi, \sqrt{2}$），确保曲线渲染无舍入损耗。 - **对“效率至上”的反思**：承认旧 TeX 为节省内存和 CPU 周期所做的语法妥协（如反斜杠、字符状态机）在现代算力充裕环境下已变成设计负债。 --- ### [07:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=450s) 拥抱 XML、Unicode 与全维度的体素排版为了彻底根除反斜杠和混乱空格所带来的历史包袱，高德纳宣布新系统的基础输入语言全面转向 XML 的一个子集。尽管 XML 是目前被广泛接受的标准，但他安慰大家不必恐慌，普通用户在实际使用中完全感知不到 XML 的存在，因为系统提供了极其多样的交互层。在字符集方面，新系统原生构建在 Unicode 之上，实现对全球所有自然语言及其元语言的 100% 完美支持，甚至为所有语种内置了全自动的拼写检查、语法校正以及版面与字形自适应纠错。多语种可以任意无缝混排，连字（ligatures）、字偶距（kerning）及断字连字符（hyphenation）均由系统全自动处理。在排版维度上，旧 TeX 最初仅支持从左到右的单向排版，虽然后续衍生版本艰难地补丁式支持了从右到左的语言，但整体依然僵硬。新系统自诞生第一天起就支持任意方向的排版：无论是水平、垂直、对角线，还是沿着任意复杂的曲率线条延展排版。更具突破性的是，鉴于 3D 打印技术的全面普及，高德纳决定打破纸张的平面二维桎梏，将三维空间确定为新系统的基础标准。系统处理的基本排版单元不再是二维像素（pixels），而是三维空间体素（voxels）。高德纳甚至一本正经地补充道：“我还预留了扩展至四维或更高维度的底层接口，以备弦理论学家的理论最终被证明是正确的那一天。”（“I've also provided hooks to allow future extensions to four or more dimensions, in case the string theorists proved to be right.”）引发全场热烈喝彩。在虚拟表现层面，超文本本身已赋予排版无限的维度潜能，因此超文档与网页生成将是新系统的核心攻坚方向。传统 TeX 标志性的“盒子、粘结剂与惩罚项”（boxes, glue, and penalties）模型被赋予了全新生命，演变为制作包含动态视频和立体环绕声的多媒体文档的利器。 - **底层数据层**：基于 XML 子集构建，全盘采用 Unicode 编码并内建全语言语法引擎。 - **排版维度飞跃**：从平面单向排列跃升为任意曲线轨迹排版，并正式将 3D 打印的体素（voxel）纳入核心排版模型。 - **超维度与超媒体**：预留四维及高维接口，盒胶惩罚模型扩展至音频、动效和多媒体流。 --- ### [10:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=600s) 彻底抛弃宏定义：走向多感官交互与新系统命名高德纳进一步阐述新系统的输入与输出革命：它彻底脱离了传统文本的范畴。音频输入、视频流、摄像头画面以及各类环境传感器均实现无缝内嵌。系统能够智能调用移动设备的 GPS 坐标，利用加速度计感知动作与手势，并全面集成了触觉反馈（haptics）。在这一套机制下，传统的“所见即所得”（WYSIWYG）被升华为“所闻即所得”与“所触即所得”。输入与输出的界限在新系统中被彻底打破，任何输出结果都能无缝作为下一份超文档的输入，甚至实现自身反馈。以音乐为例，系统可接入 MIDI 设备录制输入，将其排版为传统五线谱，亦可将排版乐谱直接转译并输出给多台合成器演奏、转调或分轨。针对核心用户最关心的问题——新系统是否保留宏（macros），高德纳给出了极其果断的回答：“不。宏已经过时了，它们充斥着 20 世纪中叶的陈旧气息。如今根本没有人真正需要宏，大家都清楚宏不仅难以编写，甚至充满危险。”（“Does my new system have macros? No. Macros are passé. They're so mid-20th century. Nowadays no one really needs macros, which we all know can be difficult to write and even dangerous.”）新系统全面拥抱全功能菜单驱动，风格类似于 Microsoft Word 但经过了大幅强化。专家团队已经为所有排版需求预制了精囊妙方（recipes），并会持续自我迭代；菜单甚至不需要死板地以弹出或下拉形式停留在屏幕上，用户完全可以通过语音指令与肢体手势进行唤出操控。系统能极快地学习用户的操作偏好，完成定制，让复杂文档的制作在瞬息之间完成。在铺垫完新系统令人眼花缭乱的新特性后，高德纳终于向全场揭晓这款革命性产品的名字与其视觉标识（Logo）。他在高射投影仪上放置了一块特制的投影板，展示了这个新标志。随后，他亲自指导台下观众如何正确发音。高德纳强调，这个名字必须像汉语普通话那样带声调、带有音乐韵律地念出：“iTeX”（发音为 E-TeX）。第一个音节采用降升调（三声，“ee”），先降后升；第二个音节必须是纯粹的升调（二声），如同提出疑问一般。更具戏剧性的是，高德纳在发音的同时，优雅地摇响了手中的金属铃铛，并郑重向全场声明：这一声清脆的铃音并非现场音效，铃铛本身就是该软件 Logo 不可分割的一部分。 - **多模态感知输入**：集成音频、手势、GPS 定位与触觉感知，实现全感官排版互动。 - **废除宏机制**：摒弃复杂的 TeX 宏编程，全面改用智能化手势、语音及专家配方菜单驱动。 - **产品命名与多媒体 Logo**：正式公布名称，读音融入普通话三声与二声的调值，并将实体铃铛的声响作为官方 Logo 的一部分。 ### [15:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=900s) 告别孤军奋战：亚美尼亚秘密特工与 Project Mariana 在台下持续的欢笑与掌声中，高德纳（Donald Knuth）继续介绍这款革命性排版系统的新特质。他指出，新系统向世人证明它不再受陈旧观念的束缚，彻底告别了“文档只能看不能听”的旧时代。不过文档中的发声铃声是可选的，无音频文档会自动省略；而在三维立体文档中，其标志更会化为真正的三维立体造型。随后，他调侃起自己的发音变化——他这次顺应潮流把“TeX”念成了带有爆破音的“tex”，而不是希腊语原汁原味的“tech”，因为他发现除了希腊本土，全世界几乎没人能念对那个原始发音。谈到软件工程的实现时，高德纳提到了当年开发初代系统的往事。很多人或许还记得 TeX 78 的全部代码都是他一个人闭门苦干敲出来的，台下听众不免好奇他是否也在新系统上如法炮制。高德纳对此给出了令人捧腹的解释，直言大家不必为此担忧：“经历多年之后，我终于意识到自己的长处在于向下授权与领导大型项目，而非单打独斗；编程从来都不是我的强项。比如说，我不得不从 TeX 里面修复了 1289 个 Bug，从 METAFONT 里面移除了 571 个 Bug。” ```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: 高德纳新事业组织架构演进 accDescr: 展示高德纳如何从昔日单打独斗转型为建立秘密的跨国软件工程团队 subgraph Solo["昔日个人开发模式 (TeX 78)"] K1["高德纳孤军奋战"] --> B1["深陷 1860 个历史 Bug 泥潭"] end subgraph Mariana["现代商业组织模式 (Project Mariana)"] K2["高德纳 (商业领袖与授权者)"] --> Team["亚美尼亚秘密顶尖程序员 (>100人)"] Team --> Web["受防火墙保护的内部门户 (projectmariana.com)"] Team --> Sec["高度安全加密文档系统"] end ``` 摆脱了亲自写代码的枷锁后，高德纳在 2006 年夏天迎来了转机。当时他访问了亚美尼亚科学院，意外得知苏联时期在埃里温（Yerevan）的一座大型研究所里，曾秘密进行过极其精密且高级的国防保密研发工作。他在那里结识了大量曾参与这些绝密项目的一流程序员。苏联解体后，这批拥有顶尖编程实力的专家正急切渴望将才华拓展到全新的商业领域，双方一拍即合。长期眼见斯坦福同事纷纷创办初创公司发家致富，高德纳坦言这次终于轮到自己了。他顺理成章地组建了一个名为“Project Mariana”的地下秘密团队，网罗了上百位全球顶尖技术人员，并指出： - 团队上线了绝密门户网站 `www.projectmariana.com`，上面赫然带有代表项目的亚美尼亚字母“M”（Unicode 编码 `0544`）。 - 该站点构筑了坚固的防火墙，外人至今未能渗透窃取其规划文档与早期演示。 - 项目名称“Mariana”实际上是“Armenian”（亚美尼亚人）一词变位构成的谜题字母游戏。 --- ### [18:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1130s) 银弹技术大杂烩与对形式化方法的弃绝重回核心技术架构的话题时，高德纳揭示了该系统在工程实践上的巨大倒戈。经过项目组深思熟虑，新系统的所有代码均采用 Scheme 语言编写。不仅如此，团队还决定彻底拥抱过去几十年软件工程领域发明出的所有流行名词与“银弹”概念，试图以此保障项目的必然成功。高德纳一口气列举了系统采纳的全部现代研发范式：信息隐藏（Information Hiding）、敏捷软件开发（Agile Development）、极限编程（Extreme Programming）、用例建模（Use Case Modeling）、前瞻设计（Look-ahead Design）、瀑布模型（Waterfall Modeling）、单元测试（Unit Testing）、代码重构（Refactoring）、快速原型制作（Rapid Prototyping）等全套方案。团队甚至跨越了传统的面向对象编程（OOP），直接跃升到面向切面编程（AOP）。然而，在这场集齐所有工程 buzzword 的狂欢中，有两项传统被毫不留情地抛弃了。高德纳直言不讳地调侃道：“噢，但我们没有使用任何形式化方法，因为众所周知，形式化方法完全纯属学院派玩具；而且我们也彻底放弃了我当年开发 TeX 82 时采用的文学编程概念，因为事实证明编写技术文档实在是太折磨人了。” --- ### [20:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1247s) 订阅制、云算力与传销式定价模型谈及商业化运作，高德纳直言新系统绝不可能像老 TeX 那样以自由软件的形式放在公有领域（Public Domain）任人免费使用。为了让那群才华横溢的前苏联防务程序员获得优厚的回报，团队设计了一套极具创新性的收费策略： ```mermaid flowchart LR accTitle: e-TeX 多层级推荐返利机制 accDescr: 展示用户通过拉新获取阶梯折扣并最终实现被动收入的机制 User["新注册订阅用户"] -->|"拉拢 1 位好友加入"| D1["立享 10% 订阅月费折扣"] D1 -->|"累计拉拢 10 位有效会员"| Free["享受 100% 折扣 (免费使用软件)"] Free -->|"拉拢第 11 位及更多会员"| Profit["反向获取永久被动分红收入"] ``` 系统采用当月订阅制，基础套餐允许用户在自己的一至两台个人电脑上无限使用，或者在官方认证的服务提供商云端享受上限为 40 小时 × 16GB 的云算力。在首个运营年份，平台提供为期一个月的免费试用。随后的收费完全视用户所在地区的网络带宽质量而定： - 美国加利福尼亚州用户每月需支付 99 美元。 - 德国用户每月支付 69 欧元。 - 亚美尼亚本地用户每月仅需象征性支付 1999 德拉姆（Dram）。 - 针对老年人、5 岁以下儿童以及在读学生，系统均提供高额教育与关照折扣。整套定价机制最瞩目的“颠覆式创新”是带有网络营销色彩的多层级返利。用户只要成功说服一人加入，就能在双方保持订阅的前提下永久获得 10% 的账单返现。换言之，只要拉来 10 位新订阅者，软件使用权即可彻底归零免费；而一旦拉拢到第 11 个人，用户甚至能直接获得稳定的终身被动收入。面对为何放弃一次性买断而采用全订阅制的质疑，高德纳解释这除了保护专有软件版权外，更在于系统每天都会持续推送升级与改进。回顾当年为了让 TeX 82 具备真正的跨世纪归档能力，保证五十年后输出一模一样排版所付出的心血，高德纳如今彻底否定了那种执念：“老实讲，哪怕才过去区区五年，更别提五十年了，谁还会去在乎我今天究竟干了些什么？身处互联网时代，人生苦短，根本不值得把任何旧东西再读上一遍。任何超过 30 个月以前的东西既不可靠也毫无趣味，我们最好还是活在当下、享受发生的一切。” --- ### [24:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1452s) 众包出版帝国、分级专家网络与在线求助高德纳进一步描绘了系统构建的全球庞大经济蓝图，预言它将为全球经济注入活力并创造数以万计的就业岗位。第三方独立开发者可以在线开发并分发微型插件，仅需每周收取几美分的微额授权费。而在内容生产端，任何普通作者均可在不跳出该系统的情况下直接将作品变现，皆因系统底层深度集成了完整的电商订单、账单扣费、工业制造及物流投递体系。以写博客为例，读者可以自由挑选并打包博主发布的任意章节，按需定制出一本印刷精美且装订完好的实体书籍。系统将自动向买家扣款，并在作者、印刷厂与装订商之间进行公平的利润分账，随后直接快递到买家家门。高德纳将这种运转方式形容为现代高定版的“西尔斯-罗巴克百货目录（Sears and Roebuck catalog）”，但客制化程度达到了前所未有的极限。同时，由于系统每天都在动态迭代，传统意义上的纸质用户手册已被彻底废弃。取而代之的是一套完备的认证咨询师网络与三种等级的在线帮助系统： - 面向入门初学者的“傻瓜在线帮助（Help for Dummies）”。 - 面向资深黑客的“巫师在线帮助（Help for Wizards）”。 - 一对一专属视频咨询服务。每位订阅会员每月享有与认证助手进行 1 小时在线直连交流的权益，而技术极客们完全可以在自己家中以弹性的兼职时间为官方提供咨询支持，从而补贴家用。 --- ### [26:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1610s) 吞噬一切的功能集：双曲几何、符号计算与万物感知在演讲该阶段的尾声，高德纳向观众揭开了新系统一系列令人瞠目结舌的超前特性，其功能边界已远远超越传统的排版软件，演变成一个无所不包的超媒体操作系统。在计算能力上，用户可以在文档中进行任意复杂的符号运算，无论是多项式展开、幂级数、矩阵运算，还是偏微分方程解析与凸优化求解均不在话下。这些计算与矢量绘图、统计图表引擎高度绑定，并原生整合了全球卫星实景地图数据。配合系统自带的语音合成引擎，用户甚至可以直接在超文档内部规划出最优路线并直接作为车载导航使用。 ```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: e-TeX 超文档数据吞吐流 accDescr: 展现从全域现实传感器到双曲几何多用户协同的完整数据链路 subgraph Inputs["全域物理与网络输入源"] Sensors["新闻订阅 / 摄像头 / 交通传感器 / 气象探头"] Biometrics["心脏监护仪 / 地震仪 / 天文台望远镜"] end subgraph Core["核心超文档处理引擎"] Math["符号计算 (偏微分 / 凸优化 / 幂级数)"] Media["图像润饰 / 面部识别 / 语音处理 / CAD"] Mode["Math ML 强制无歧义数学模式"] end subgraph Output["超维度展现与协作"] Nav["语音交互车载动态导航"] Hyper["双曲几何引擎 (容纳指数级虚拟化身)"] Print["按需排版印刷与实体出版"] end Sensors --> Core Biometrics --> Core Core --> Nav Core --> Hyper Core --> Print ``` 对于教育工作者而言，学术论文已转变为动态互动的实验室。读者不仅可以阅读公式，还能自由篡改其中的变量并实时重绘函数曲线。为了实现这一跨越，高德纳彻底革新了数学排版模式（Math Mode）：“顺带提一句，我改动了数学模式，如今所有公式都必须被毫无歧义地精确定义，唯有这样它们才能在被打印出来的同时被计算机直接计算评估。对，想象一下 MathML 规范吧。虽然这导致公式变得更冗长、敲起来更费劲，但为了获得新功能，这点代价微不足道。” 更加激进的是超文档内建的虚拟现实空间。系统支持任意多用户同屏交互，甚至能将自身渲染为三维虚拟化身（Avatar）。高德纳声称该技术足以碾压当时流行的《第二人生》（Second Life），其不仅加入了力反馈触觉感知（Haptics），更革命性地引入了非欧几里得几何中的双曲几何空间（Hyperbolic Geometry）——在双曲几何框架下，有限距离的视野范围内可以同时挤下指数级暴增的虚拟角色，而不会产生任何几何重叠冲突，开辟了多人远程视频会议的崭新可能。在数据感知方面，系统演变为吞噬现实世界数据的黑洞。它能接入新闻提要、网络摄像头、道路交通感应器、气象监控、心率监测仪、地震记录仪乃至天文望远镜的实时信号流。这些异构数据不仅能在文档内混合重组并转录为声画，更配套提供了顶级专业工具链，囊括了照片精修修图、图像处理、字符光学识别（OCR）、人脸识别、语音识别乃至计算机辅助设计（CAD）过滤处理，使得原本单纯的排版引擎彻底异化为全知全能的超级终端。 ### [30:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1800s) 物理输出拓展与厨房智能交互生态高德纳（Don Knuth）描绘了该系统极其惊人的输出跨度与实体制造能力。系统的输出不仅限于传统的屏幕或纸质媒介，还可以自动进行格式转换，直接输出到激光切割机、刺绣机、3D 打印机、铣床以及其他各类 CNC（数控）加工设备上，随后如前文所述直接交付给终端消费者。紧接着，他抛出了一项极具生活化且天马行空的早期扩展插件——一款交互式烹饪食谱。该插件能够直接与用户的厨房设备深度互联，无缝对接火炉、烤箱、食品储藏室和冰箱。它不仅能根据用户现有的食材自动制定并协助烹饪一日三餐，还能在食材见底时通过网络下单自动补货，彻底将排版与代码的逻辑延伸至日常生活操作中。 ```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: 系统输出与硬件交互流程 accDescr: 展示系统生成的内容如何流向工业数控设备与智能厨房互联设备。 subgraph Hardware["物理制造与 CNC 设备"] A["激光切割机与 3D 打印机"] B["刺绣机与铣床设备"] end subgraph Kitchen["智能厨房交互插件"] C["炉灶与烤箱控制"] D["冰箱与储藏室库存管理"] E["在线自动补货下单"] end SYS["系统核心数据"] --> Hardware SYS --> Kitchen ``` ### [30:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1852s) 社交网络、动态超文档与未能实现的现场演示该系统同样自然地整合了面向社交网络的敏感交互功能。用户不仅可以轻松查阅他人编排的超文档，收发推文（Tweets）更是轻而易举。针对当时推特严格的字数限制，高德纳调侃道，推文根本不需要死板地限制在 140 个 Unicode 字符之内，字数上限在系统中纯粹是一个可调节的参数，例如用户完全可以将其配置为只接收 50 个字符以内的超短推文。借助这一套系统，一个人完整的生命历程甚至可以被高度浓缩并封装进一个动态超文档中，供任何获得授权的人随时下载。在将系统前景推向高潮之际，现场氛围迎来了一个戏剧性的反转。高德纳坦白承认，自己原本计划在当天进行一场完整的现场实时演示，而不是仅仅空谈这些功能特性，甚至连这场演讲的所有幻灯片原本都应当由该系统自动排版生成，因为技术讲座中的图表说明按理说是所有文档中最容易制作的。然而，由于突发的“硬件故障”，现场演示不得不宣告放弃。他略带自嘲地表示，大家完全可以想象要把该系统的所有组件拼凑到一起协同工作是多么困难的一件事。 - 高德纳在谈及推文长度设限的灵活性时强调：“The actual limit is a parameter.” - 针对系统将人生全盘数字化的设想，高德纳宣称：“With E-text, your entire life can be encapsulated into one dynamic hyperdocument downloadable by anybody you designate.” - 谈及现场演示落空的技术尴尬，高德纳解释道：“Indeed, E-text was supposed to have provided all of my slides for this lecture.” ### [32:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=1935s) 专利申报、封口令与问答互动中的搪塞尽管遭遇了硬件故障，高德纳依然转述了研发同事们的保证：系统已经无限接近其首个重大正式版本的发布状态。团队计划在系统正式上线后立即召开全球新闻发布会，时间预期就在下个月。紧接着他话锋一转，表示自己必须立刻打住，因为在所有专利申请正式提交完毕之前，他受规则所限无法透露更多内幕细节。他信心满满地向听众保证，大家一旦亲自试用，必定会争相申请成为该系统的创始会员。演讲结束进入现场提问环节时，台下听众意犹未尽地追问目前的内部版本号等具体技术细节。高德纳则半开玩笑地以法务风险为挡箭牌开始推托，声称律师严厉告诫自己不得回答敏感问题，所有未解之谜都必须留待全球新闻发布会才会正式揭晓。在最后关于度量衡单位的简短交涉中，他确认了诸如波特-齐比单位（Potter-Ziby units）确实是系统内置的标准计量单位之一，随后在全场的笑声与掌声中结束了这场充满极客幽默与讽刺色彩的发布秀。 - 面对法务压力与商业机密限制，高德纳向观众摊牌：“The lawyers have asked me not to answer any...” - 在吊足听众胃口的同时，高德纳对产品前景打保票：“I'm sure that once you've tried E-text, you'll immediately want to become a charter member of E-text.” - 面对台下关于版本的刨根问底，高德纳坚定地拒绝剧透：“You have to wait for our press conference.” ## Notable quotes > [05:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA&t=300s) I didn't understand the implications of Moore's law. I didn't realize in a few years, I wouldn't care whether The Art of Computer Programming could be typeset in a half a second rather than in five seconds. — 高德纳 ## Mentioned 高德纳 (Donald Knuth), 史蒂夫·乔布斯 (Steve Jobs), TeX, TeX 78, TeX 82, METAFONT, iTeX / e-TeX, Project Mariana, Adobe, 《计算机程序设计艺术》 (The Art of Computer Programming), 《The TeXbook》, XML, Unicode, Microsoft Word, Scheme, MathML, 《第二人生》 (Second Life), Twitter, 亚美尼亚科学院 (Armenian Academy of Sciences), 斯坦福大学 (Stanford University), River Valley Technologies ## Video description Don Knuth Stanford University Zeeba TV (http://zeeba.tv) is part of the River Valley group of Companies. http://www.rivervalleytechnologies.com/ [Source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKaI78K_rgA)

Source quotes

[5:00] 高德纳: I didn't understand the implications of Moore's law. I didn't realize in a few years, I wouldn't care whether The Art of Computer Programming could be typeset in a half a second rather than in five seconds.

Original transcript

[0:00] Dear friends, How appropriate it is for us to be meeting here in the city where Steve Jobs has made so many dramatic announcements. Today I have the honor of unveiling for you something that, in Steve's words, is truly incredible. A successor to tech that I've been working on in secret for quite some time. Hmm. Thank you. All of us know that computers, I'm going to go over to the other side where I can use my right hand. Hmm. Thank you. Okay. Mm-hmm. Thank you. All of us know that computers and the Internet have been changing the world at a dizzying pace. Consequently, few if any of the assumptions that I made when I first got tech to work in 1978 are valid today. Day after day, I've been becoming more and more convinced that a totally different approach is now needed. um Finally, I woke up one morning with the realization that I couldn't be happy unless I came up with a new system that rectifies my former mistakes. A system that leads to real progress. Thank you. Thank you. Therefore, Mm-hmm. Thank you. I've decided to scrap Tech 78 and Tech 72, and to start over from scratch. Of course, the first thing that I wanted to fix was the most egregious design error that I've made in the early system. Thank you. The old text The old tech was based internally on binary arithmetic, although its user interface was entirely decimal. Thank you. Oh, I'm sorry, this is interfering? Thank you. Yeah, let's get rid of this Hold on, hold on. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. . Actually, Steve always rehearses better than I did. Okay. So anyway, okay. So, you know, tech internally is binary arithmetic, but it's user interface entirely decimal, so one could write, for example, if them love. four tenths of a point equals 3999 of a point, you know, then say yes. And the response would be, Yes. Now, furthermore, a construction like this where you say demand zero is equal to four tenths of a point, which is of course the normal width of a rule, Then you can multiply that by ten and you can ask, what is ten times four tenths of a point? and you get the answer. How ridiculous can you get? Are mathematicians supposed to like this? Are computer scientists supposed to like this? Thank you. Is anybody supposed to like this? By the way... I apologize for using handwritten overhead projector slides in this presentation instead of making PowerPoint points. Some unexpected problems arose with my computer at home, and I didn't want to risk security leaks by putting any of this material on someone else's machine. Okay, returning to my story, many of you recall... Let's see. Many of you recall that the old tech represented all units of measure, all dimensions, as integer multiples of a so-called scaled point. A scaled point was defined to be 1 over 65536 of a printer's point. And of course the printer's point was defined to be one over 72.6. Two-sevenths of an inch, as people have remarked today. How bizarre and anachronistic. Nobody remembers or cares about the old-fashioned units that printers used in the pre-internet era. Thank you. The graphic designers of today all know that there are exactly 72 points to an inch, as specified by Adobe Systems. Why should tech insist on calling that now universal unit a big point? Indeed, what [5:00] ...points of any kind be to anybody ten years from now. Moreover, Tech has never allowed dimensions to exceed max demand. which is... What? 16383.9999847412109375. which is roughly 18.8921175 feet or about 5.7583 meters. Today's graphic devices make posters and banners much, much larger than this, so tech cannot cope. At the other extreme, Um, advances in nanotechnology mean that that text minimum non-zero dimension of one scale point is far too large to accommodate 21st century applications. The scale point is huge. Um, It's more than two for Schimmel-Paterzibis. And it's more than 53 Ohmstrom units, you know, so much too large. Okay, so... The answer then, none of that. The new system allows arbitrarily large or small units of all kinds. any well defined unit. And you can specify, for example. three-sevenths of a yard as a rational, exact rational quantity. Or you can use irrational numbers like pi and square root of two. so that circles and other objects can at last be rendered with perfect accuracy. Thank you. So my design from 32 years ago was heavily influenced by something that we called Hmm Thank you. Efficiency. laughter I didn't understand the implications of Moore's law. I didn't realize in a few years, I wouldn't care whether the art of computer programming could be typeset in a half a second rather than in five seconds. Examples of my tunnel vision abound in almost every page of the tech book. For example, I used backslashes and other strange characters to define what I called control sequences. Does any other system you know have control sequences? Of course not. Thank you. With my old rules, People never knew whether or not a blank space really meant a blank space. Hmm. - Let's see. Okay. Therefore, you the basic input language for my new system is entirely there is a subset of XML. which is a widely accepted standard. However, XML is really only necessary at the lowest level Most users won't need to be aware of it because we'll see in a moment that there are many, many other ways to provide input. Of course, the character set for my new system is Unicode. . uh, Let's see, I'm sorry, I'm lost. Unicode so that there's 100% support for all of the languages and meta-languages of the world. Automatic spelling correction and grammar correction are built in for every language. as well as automatic correction to page layout. and the face is on. What's the matter? Hmm. Different languages can freely be intermixed at will, always with appropriate ligatures, kerning, and hyphenation. The old tech was limited to left to right typesetting and none of its extent, of course some of its extensions now also handle right to left conventions of many languages. That my original implementation didn't consider. But my new system has been designed from the very beginning to allow typesetting in any direction whatsoever, whether horizontal, vertical or diagonal or long any kind of curved lines. In fact, since 3D printing technology is now widespread, I decided from the beginning that there was no reason to limit my system to only two dimensions. Three dimensions are now standard in the new system. In other words, we deal with voxels instead of mere pixels. I've also provided hooks to allow future extensions to four or more [10:00] - Dimensions, in case the string theorists proved to be right. Thank you. Thank you. From a virtual standpoint, the notion of hypertext already gives us the equivalent of unlimited dimensionality, and the production of hyper documents and web pages will be one of the chief thrusts of my new system. old principles of boxes, glue, and penalties turn out to yield fantastic new ways to create multimedia documents including animated videos and stereographic sound. Thank you. Indeed, The input and output. characteristics. of my new system. So they aren't confined at all to traditional forms of text. Audio input Um... audio input, video input, input from cameras. They're seamlessly integrated as well as sensor devices of all sorts. The system uses your GPS coordinates intelligently. if you're a mobile user, and it senses your motions and gestures with accelerometers and so on. and complete supportive haptics is fully implemented. instead of What you see is what you get. We now also have what you hear is what you get, and what you feel is what you get. There really is little difference between input and output in the new system because any input can be output. Conversely, any output from one hyper document can be input to another or to itself. Consider, for example, music. usually could be input from one or more MIDI devices, to the system. And then you could output it to a conventional printed score. or to another MIDI device. or to a group of devices, optionally segmented into individual parts, or transposed, or whatever you want. Going the other way, a printed score can be used as input to a synthesizer and so on. I'll say more about these dynamic aspects later. - Sure. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Okay, does my new system have macros? No. Uh... Macros are passe. They're so mid-20th century. Nowadays no one really needs macros, which we all know can be difficult to write and even dangerous. Everything in the new system is menu driven. somewhat in the style of Microsoft Word, but considerably enhanced. Experts have prepared recipes for everything you'll ever want to do. And these features keep growing and growing and getting better and better. The menus needn't appear on your computer screens in traditional pull down or pop up form. My system also responds to spoken commands and gestures. And it quickly learns your preferences. so that it's customized to your own wishes, thereby making document preparation almost instantaneous. Now, you may have noticed that I've been referring a lot to my new system, but I haven't yet told you its name. I had to explain some of its characteristics before you were ready to fully understand the name. But now I'm ready to reveal it and more importantly, to show you its logo. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Actually, I also have it here on a on a plate which works wonderfully on overhead projectors. *crickets* How does one properly pronounce this name? Listen carefully. E-text. In the first place you'll notice that it should be said musically with tones as in Mandarin. Thank you. The first vowel is spoken with a dipping tone, ee, Thank you. where the pitch falls and then rises. The second vowel has a strictly rising tone, Yeah, almost as if you're asking a question. In the second place, you'll notice that I've also rung a bell when saying the name. The bell is also part of the logo. E-tech. [15:00] *laughter* It reminds us that EE text is limited, is not limited by obsolete conventions, not hampered by the days when documents were only seen but not heard. However, the bell is optional and it's omitted in documents that have no audio. Conversely, the logo is actually three-dimensional in 3D documents. In the third place, did you notice that I said tex instead of tex? I decided to go with the flow since almost nobody outside of Greece has ever pronounced tech the way with the correct text. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Some of you may recall that I wrote the entire program for Tech 78 all by myself. You may be wondering whether I've done the same for e-text. Don't worry. This time around I'm having the job done by people who know what they're doing. After many years, I've finally come to realize that my main strength lies in the ability to delegate work and to lead large projects rather than to go it alone. Programming has never really been my forte. For example, I've had to remove 1,289 bugs from tech and 571 from MetaBug. Thank you. Thank you. So, End of that. Thank you. I made a very fortunate discovery during the summer of 2006 when I visited the Academy of Sciences in Armenia. There I learned that a huge amount of highly sophisticated but classified defense work had been done secretly at a large institute in Yerevan during the Soviet era. I met many of the people who had participated in these activities. I found that they were extraordinarily good programmers. Moreover, they were anxious to apply their skills to new domains. So they were a perfect match for my desire to make E text a reality. Thank you. I had long envied my colleagues at Stanford who had started up their own companies and gotten rich. Now it was my turn. Without much difficulty, I formed a clandestine group called Project Mariana. comprising more than 100 of the top programmers in the world. Thank you. hmm A few weeks ago, some of you apparently discovered our website portal at www.projectmariana.com. I've also seen blogs that wondered about, by the way, here, here. Thank you. Thank you. You can look it up after the talk. Um, Okay. Let's see, what am I saying? Oh, okay. All right. There have been blogs that commented, what is this Armenian letter M, Unicode 0544, doing on this page? But as far as I know, nobody outside of our group has yet been able to penetrate the firewall that we built into this site, nor to look at any of our planning documents or initial demos. Needless to say, I'm pleased at this success. because the ability to create secure documents is another feature of ease. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. back to... Project Mariano. OK. this is the website I showed you. Okay. Furthermore, I believe that nobody else has realized until now that Mariana is an anagram of Armenian. Okay. Thank you. Okay, after some... Anyway, back to I'm sorry, I should have practiced this better. Now I'm ready for this slide. Okay, so we're back talking about programming. After some deliberation, our group decided that all of the code for E text should be written in scheme. We also decided to guarantee success by using all of the silver bullets that have been discovered by software engineers during the past decades. information hiding, agile software development, stream programming, use case modeling, debugging, look ahead design, waterfall modeling, Unit testing. [20:00] Refactoring, rapid prototyping, the whole shebang. We're going beyond ordinary object-oriented programming to aspect-oriented programming. Thank you. um Let's see. Thank you. Oh, but we're not using any formal methods. because everybody knows that formal methods are strictly academic. And we're abandoning the old notion of literate programming that I use when developing Tech 82, because documentation has proved to be too much of a pain. Well, okay. So, now. Thank you. Thank you. or something. Naturally, it's out of the question. for a system like eText to be freely available and essentially in the public domain, as the old text system was. These talented programmers certainly deserve to be paid handsomely for their hard work. We have therefore devised some innovative pricing strategies, so that I'm sure you will consider E-text to be an unbeatable bargain, considering the enormous value of its new features. Here's the way it will work. Payments will be by monthly subscription. which will entitle you to unlimited use of EE texts on one or two of of your own computers, Or... up to 40 hours times 16 gigabytes of computing in our cloud of approved service providers. During the first year, we're offering a one month free introductory trial. Thereafter, your costs will depend on the quality of Internet access that is available in your area. For example, California users would pay $99 per month. German users, 69 euros per month. But the monthly fee in Armenia will be only nineteen ninety nine grams. Now, there are substantial discounts for seniors and for children under five. as well as educational discounts for students. Thank you. Thank you. And moreover, and this is the main innovation, you get a 10% discount. for every new member that you can convince to join. Yeah. lasting as long as you and that person are both enrolled in the plan. So thus, if you can sign up just 10 new subscribers, your access to EEFx will essentially be free. And if you bring in 11, you've guaranteed a lifetime income. So the reason my new enterprise operates by monthly subscription instead of actually selling copies of the software is in part because the software is proprietary, but this mainly. because edX will change every day. due to constant improvements and upgrades to the system. Once upon a time I took great tear to ensure that Tech 82 would be truly archival so that the results obtainable today would produce identical output 50 years from now. But that was a manifestly foolish. Let's face it. Who's going to care what one wit for what I do today after even five years have elapsed, let alone 50? Life is too short to reread anything anymore in the Internet age. Nothing over 30 months old is trustworthy or interesting. We're best off just enjoying each moment as it happens. Thank you. Okay, so Yeah, daily improvement. Okay, so now E text will... benefit the entire world's economy because it will lead to tens of thousands of new jobs. For example, independent developers will be able to design and sell plugins that are distributed online and available for only a few pennies per week. "Any E-Tech user will be able to sell his or her own documents online without leaving the ETEC system. Because ETEC includes facilities for ordering Billing, manufacturing and shipping. You can, for instance, write a blog, and others can package as many chapters of that blog as they wish. into a customized book that is nicely printed and bound. E-Tech [25:00] We'll collect the appropriate payments from each customer, divide them fairly between you, the printer, and the binder. The finished book will then arrive promptly at the customer's residence. The operation will be something like the old Sears and Roebuck catalog, but now each item will be custom tailored to an extent never before, possible. or see him. More importantly, there will be a large network of certified E-text consultants at various grades of certification. The text has no user manual in the old sense, of course, because the system changes daily. But it does have three varieties of online health. *ahem* Thank you. Um... There's online help for dummies. There's an online help for wizards. And then there's personalized online help, in which you get to chat one-on-one with a certified e-tech helper. Your membership fee entitles you to one hour's worth of one-on-one help Each month. Such helpers can also arrange to work part-time for the EE tech organization out of their own homes and with flexible hours in order to supplement their other income. Thank you. Okay, let me conclude by describing a few more of the... of the text features. Thank you. so that you can begin to get a glimpse of how truly revolutionary it is. I've already told you that dimensions of the United States. can be specified as arbitrary multiples of standard units, but that's just a tiny part of the story. He actually is able to do arbitrary symbolic calculations uh... with polynomials and power series. and matrices partial differential equations, complex, convex optimization and so on. all integrated with graphics for automatic curve plotting and statistical charts, and of course together with maps and satellite photographs. from all parts of the world. So together with ED text synthesized Voice Output you can do things like find a shortest route and navigate your car. All as part of an E tech hyper docking. If you're a professor like me, you can write math texts in which the formulas are changeable by each individual reader who can evaluate them and plot their graphs interactively. Incidentally, I've changed math mode so that formulas must now be specified unambiguously in such a way that they can be evaluated as well as printed. Yeah. Think Math ML. This makes the formulas longer and more difficult to type, but that's a small price to pay for the added functionality. The the hyper documents that he can have any number of users. who can interact with each other and render images of themselves as avatars. This capability goes beyond the traditional kinds of virtual reality that are offered by systems such as Second Life, not only because of E-text haptics, but also because E-texts. That uses hyperbolic geometry. In hyperbolic geometry, exponentially many avatars can be within a bounded distance of each other. Thank you. Such interactive documents obviously enable video conferencing as a simple special case. I mentioned earlier that ED Tech can receive input from all kinds of different sources, like news feeds, webcams, traffic sensors, weather sensors, heart monitors. Seismographs, astronomical observations, you name it. All of these can be captured, mixed, and are converted to other forms such as audio or video or both. Right. World-class tools are provided for photo retouching and image processing. Let's see what we're doing now. Thank you. Thank you. Hmm. Thank you. And uh... Character and face recognition Um, speech recognition, Did I say computer-aided design? I'm not sure if You know, there's speech recognition, face recognition, And sophisticated filters for all sorts of data, including for example audio [30:00] and email. Uh... You see, output then can be automatically formatted for laser cutters, embroidery machines, 3D printers, milling machines and other CNC devices, and shipped directly to consumers as mentioned earlier. Okay, so one of our early plugins will feature an interactive cookbook that interfaces directly to your kitchen stove fat oven pantry and refrigerator so that you can prepare meals automatically with the ingredients that you already have on hand. and or replenish your supplies by online ordering. Okay, so he took... naturally incorporates also sensitive facilities for social networking. You can easily read the hyper documents prepared by others, and it's even easier to send and receive tweets. Your tweets needn't be limited to 140 characters of Unicode. The actual limit is a parameter. For example, you can set things up so that you receive only tweets of 50 characters or With E-text. your entire life can be encapsulated into one dynamic hyper document downloadable by anybody you designate. Well, I had intended to give you a live demonstration of EETech today instead of merely just talking about its features. Indeed, EETech was supposed to have provided all of my slides for this lecture. Because, of course, the illustrations for a technical talk are among the simplest of all documents to create. Unfortunately, however, that's turned out to be impossible because of hardware glitches You can well imagine how difficult it has been to get all of the pieces of E-text to work together. But my coworkers assure me that the system is almost ready for its first major release, and we plan a worldwide press conference. as soon as the tech is officially launched, hopefully next month. Well, I've got to stop now. I can't tell you anymore until our patent applications have all been filed. But I'm sure that once you've tried e-Tag, you'll immediately want to become a charter member of e-Tag. Thank you. Up to the banquet. I have more questions. Okay, but remember that it's all in, you know, The lawyers have asked me not to answer any... What is the current version I'm going to take a break. You have to wait for our press conference. and I had magazines. Well, the Potter-Ziby units is one of the standard units. in the system. Thank you.