METAFONT

This record preserves its author, date and source link. Open HN to read the full context.

This record preserves its author, date and source link. Open HN to read the full context.

This record preserves its author, date and source link. Open HN to read the full context.

This record preserves its author, date and source link. Open HN to read the full context.

This record preserves its author, date and source link. Open HN to read the full context.

This record preserves its author, date and source link. Open HN to read the full context.

This record preserves its author, date and source link. Open HN to read the full context.

This record preserves its author, date and source link. Open HN to read the full context.

This record preserves its author, date and source link. Open HN to read the full context.

This record preserves its author, date and source link. Open HN to read the full context.

This record preserves its author, date and source link. Open HN to read the full context.

This record preserves its author, date and source link. Open HN to read the full context.

This record preserves its author, date and source link. Open HN to read the full context.

…mes to mind is KMP, the Knuth-Morris-Pratt algorithm for text searching, which is actually a fairly big deal in that community. But most of the typesetting algorithms in TeX were totally novel at the time; ditto Metafont. Wikipedia lists several others, including his popularization of the "Dancing Links" exact cover algorithm and his cunning test of recursion in Algol 60 compilers (which was very new at the time).

…l requirement to work around an ancient poor-quality custom font scheme that should have been dumped years ago. I know this is a topic close to people's hearts, but read the goal above: TeX has quite clearly failed to meet it.