In 1977 the eminent Stanford mathematician Donald Knuth took 10 years out from writing the multi-volume Art of Computer Programming to develop TeX, an Open Source typesetting programme, and METAFONT, an Open Source font design programme. As a result, subsequent volumes of the Art of Computer Programming (and many of the rest of the world's computer-set technical publications) look nearly as good as work set in hot metal by a skilled monotype or linotype machine operator. (My dad, who died in 1985, and had trained as a compositor before becoming a typographer, would have been pleased about the development of TeX and METAFONT: he used to fulminate about what he saw as the poor quality of the best computer set printing that was available in the early 1980s.)
In 1990 Knuth decided to stop using email. Here is an extract from his quirky (but tempting!) commentary on the decision:
"Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things. But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things. What I do takes long hours of studying and uninterruptible concentration."
Knuth does accept faxes. But these he deals with roughly every six months.
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