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\author{Jonathan Fine}
\title{Donald Knuth's 60th birthday}
\begin{Article}
Recently I noticed from the \TeX book{} that Knuth would be 60 in
1998. I thought it might be nice to organise a meeting to express
our appreciation. And so I wrote to him, suggesting this. I also
took the opportunity to ask him about his relationship and attitude
to the NTS project. His reply follows. (Photocopies were circulated
to those present at the 1998 AGM.)
\begin{quotation}
Dear Jonathan,
Thanks for your letter.
About birthdays, I believe (with the Beatles) that a 64th birthday is
vastly more interesting than a 60th birthday. Thus I will be looking
forward most eagerly to January 10, 2002.
However, I am of course delighted that you and others might still
appreciate some of my work after having ben exposed to it for so
long. Thanks for the sentiment.
About NTS and $\Omega$, etc., I have always encouraged work that
leads to improvements in typography. I want \TeX{} itself to remain
a fixed point forever, warts and all, entirely my responsibility; but
I also believe that anything of nontrivial complexity is inherently
non-optimum. So I look forward to continued improvements by
conscientious people who are dedicated to quality software. (I do
warn them that the task of reaching a decent fixed point is not
easy!)
Best wishes for a successful AGM. I received my invitation two days
ago and it looks like a splendid meeting has been planned, although
of course I cannot take the time to travel while working on
\textsl{TAOCP}.
Sincerely,
Donald E. Knuth
\end{quotation}
It is at present too early, in my opinion, to make plans for Knuth's
64th (octal 100 and binary 1,000,000) birthday. But in a year, or
perhaps two, we should allow the prospect of such a meeting, to
celebrate his contribution, to come forward in our minds.
\end{Article}
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