Donald Knuth is known, in my
family, as the
God of Computer Science. He has a
pipe organ in his house. His
magnum opus,
The Art of Computer Programming, is the
ultimate reference on
data structures and
algorithms. I think there are 4 or 5
volumes out now, but that may be a slightly generous
estimate. In my considered opinion, there are probably better
coders than Donald Knuth in this world, but there are no better
computer scientists.
He rightly said: "Premature optimization is the root of all evil."