Getting in touch with a professor who has no longer an e-mail address... how to? This question could sound weird. I'm reading through a computer science book which is the only reference I personally have about an algorithm, and I'd like to get in touch with the author of the book, which is quite famous in the field. I don't understand some of the conditions stated in order to make the algorithm work. I have another book which implements the algorithm, but some of the key aspects are not actually explained, and somehow I don't find the correspondence with some of theoretic aspect.

Just to clarify the algorithm is a long division algorithm for which I've tried to work out the theoretic aspect exposed in the book by myself. Some of them are fine other instead aren't clear enough, at least to me. I've tried to ask in math exchange for some help I didn't get much information XD.

The issue is that apparently this professor has no longer an e-mail address, and he suggests that if someone wants to get in touch with him it's for the best if you use the "old fashion" mail post service... which I mean... it's not that handy...

Do you have any suggestions?
Do you have any suggestions? 


My suggestion is for you to get some perspective. If the person you are referring to is who I (and everyone else here) think it is, you need to understand that this is a person who has reached an extraordinary level of celebrity in the scientific community. Saying he is "quite famous" doesn't begin to describe the situation accurately -- I'm talking about a level of fame where (I have seen this with my own eyes) when he gives a talk at another institution, star-struck graduate students and postdocs approach him one after the other asking to have their pictures taken with him. Moreover, this person famously dedicates his life to thinking, writing, and speaking at public events in various places. Being in close touch with his very large fan base is quite at odds with his lifestyle and his legendary dedication to his work.

In other words, there is a very good reason why he does not have a publicly listed email address.

For the same reason, I expect that even if you go to the small trouble of writing him a letter (which, amusingly and for a reason I can't quite understand, you seem to think is an incredibly onerous thing to do), the chances that you will get a reply seem rather low -- I wouldn't expect that he can spare the time to explain long division algorithms to random people asking for more details than he already put into his books. But in any case do give it a shot, in the event that you do get a reply you will have something to brag about to your friends. And maybe it will help free you from your psychological inhibition against writing old-fashioned letters, which is something that could be of independent benefit.