<p>When I got out, Knuth was only up to book 3 - searching, sorting & merging, if I’m not mistaken. I think there were some 7 or so books planned in the series - did they materialize? I also recall the language he wrote the algorithms in his books then included statements that became very politically incorrect subsequently, and I’m curious whether his later books or newer editions of the three books I was familiar with used a different language.</p>
<p>Back to the original discussion, while a significant number of us 70s programmers actually wrote code to the level of heap sorts, B-Trees, and the other hash, thereby requiring classic comp sci knowledge, I seriously question if very many people ever have to know anything about these now. Knowledge closer to the end user operation - how’s the casemix index changing in the last quarter and the tools to monitor such - is much more of the norm for the overwhelming majority of those that I deal with in the industry these days.</p>