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Top 5 Software Development Magazines?
juanescalante asks: "I graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science about 9 months ago and I have been working as a software developer for more than a year now. I keep looking for ways to improve myself in what I do, and seeking to gain knowledge from those who have a lot more experience than me. I've been reading books like 'Code Complete' and 'The Pragmatic Programmer' and I would also like to subscribe to a couple of great magazines. So, to all you experienced developers, which are the top software development magazines?"
Embedded Systems Design is a magazine and a web site that covers that field. Realizing that many embedded s/w engineers are really dual-hatted EEs, they have had some "basics" articles over the last few years.
The clearance system sounds logical. It is not. It is completely arbitrary. -- John Bolton
-paul
Pistol caliber is like religion: everyone has their favourite, and theirs is the only right choice.
For just programming in general, and embedded systems specifically, go for Embedded Systems Programming. Even if you don't plan on working on embedded systems, the articles target a lot of topics that I wish 'regular' programmers studied.
It's essentially a 'free' trade magazine, and all the articles are online (check out Jack Ganssle's column - Here's an example on worst case analysis.)
Beyond that, Dr Dobbs is the only other 'general' programming mag I'd recomend. Beyond that, pick up some that specifically address your industry, languages, APIs, and interfaces. There are a ton of C, Java, C++, web, exnterprise, database, etc magazines that will be interesting and useful to you.
Please note that we are moving ever more toward an embedded future.
-Adam
...grabbing a PCGamer or Xbox mag subscription. Soon, you will be completely bored with what you're doing at your job, and most likely, completely burned out. Reading mags/websites during the workday makes the painful minutes seem.. well, the same. But hey, sometimes the demo disks have fun shit on them.
I subscribe to Dr. Dobbs Journal (a.k.a DDJ) and the C/C++ Users Journal (CUJ). I liked DDJ a lot when I first started subscribing to it 15 years ago. It got a little lean a few years ago but seems to be getting better lately. Still, though, it's a classic and the CD-Rom archive is terrific. CUJ is more focused on C++, but I like it for keeping up with modern trends in the C++ world.
The right question is "how do I become a better programmer?"
The answer is: write more code, and learn more programming techniques and languages. Also learn about infrastructure software like databases, and the more rigorous aspects of the OSes you use like networking and security.
Certainly you should read books, especially "programming methodology" types of things. Not because there's a silver bullet laying around, but because it helps you think about how to improve the quality and efficiency of your work.
But the bottom line is write lots of code. You can get lots of experience and help in this by joining some open source projects and contributing, or you can just work on your own projects or products.
If you have any time left in the month, you can lay in bed reading the computer mags. But really, if you join some real projects you'll spend too much time reading mailing lists to waste much time reading print mags.
-- John.
The astute may notice that none of those are still in publication, although two have gone through name and, unfortunately, focus changes. ("Computer Language" became "Software Development" and "The C User's Journal" became "The C/C++ User's Journal" but either one is only a pale shadow of the magazines that they used to be.)
There's a bunch of free magazines in the computer industry that you can get from this website:s px
http://freetrademagazinesource.com/8/categories.a
There's a bunch of forms you have to fill out but they aren't that bad. Just make sure you answer "right" so you qualify for the subscriptions.
Depending on what you plan writing for.
But if you plan on going the (evil) Microsoft route: MSDN and Dr Dobbs.
Not that Dr Dobbs has any real Windows connections, it is just a good mag.
And, if you dont like the idea of giving Micro$oft any more of you cash, just read it online at msdn.microsoft.com.
--let the flames being
Bad User. No biscuit!
Dr Dobbs
You can find lots of free magazines related to many specialties here: http://www.TradePub.com/
When I can, like a lot of developers I read Dr. Dobbs, C (/C++) User's Journal, Java Developers Journal (JDJ), and some .NET junk.
But honestly, I get a lot more value career-wise out of reading trade magazines in the verticals I work in. Utility companies, retail stores, financial companies, etc. Knowing even a small amount about their business goes a long way to understanding their problems and being able to communicate with them.
After you get a feeling for the project (or a second project, if the first doesn't click), pick some neglected corner and implement what people have wanted for for a long time. Don't announce it until you have something useful working. Don't try to get that integrated; instead, wait a couple of months until you see why it sucks, and redo it half as big, with cleaner features, and offer that. While you're rewriting you can think about what else to tackle once you're done. Rinse, repeat.
Whatever you have had integrated in a Free Software project you can refer to proudly on a resumé. That, and the collection of your postings on the mailing list, will count for way more than anything you can say in an interview at your next job.
Have you considered publications put out by folks like the ACM or IEEE?
When I was an active programmer, doing OS development and such, I used to read publications from both.
IEEE has many journals, conference proceedings, and standards.
ACM has just as much, but, IMHO, is somewhat more acedemic in slant. I'll leave the exploration of the ACM web site in your able hands.
----- Lotus Super 7 - A real car.
I know, it's not a print magazine per se, but it's at least as good. If you read every article featured on oreilly.com you will not go far wrong in terms of having the software technology angle covered. (Hardware is another matter; O'Reilly doesn't cover that nearly as well, so you'll want another source for that.)
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
While not magazines, I've found these resources to be useful in becoming a better programmer:
CLiki, a programming language blog. Contains lots of stuff on programming languages and paradigms, including debates on merits and disadvantages.
ll-discuss, a mailing list related to programming language concepts. Perhaps most interesting if you're into language implementation, but it's the closest thing to a magazine that I can recommend.
Bugtraq, a (the?) security list. This will teach you what things to avoid; at least, the 3 most common errors.
Practical Common Lisp, a book that basically provides a crash course on Common Lisp. It shows you how things are done in Common Lisp, why they are done that way, and occasionally draws comparisons with other languages, everything including practical examples. It is said that, even if you don't program in Lisp, knowing it makes you a better programmer.
How to Design Programs, a fairly extensive book on program design. I haven't read the whole book, but it seems to both solidly and concisely cover many fundamentals. It uses Scheme for explaining things, but the material applies to other languages just as well.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
All the current suggestions from other posters I would agree with, Dr. Dobbs, ACM, IEEE, CUJ. But probably, like regular media, the smaller players are picking up the slack, even if they are web only. ServerSide, JavaLobby, IBM Systems Journal, Software Development, Artima Developer, JavaWorld, and DeveloperWorks are a few of the excellent ones I regularly read.
I became a fan of Free Software Magazine the first time I saw it advertised. I immediately subscribed, and am grateful for every issue that has been released. Yes, there are some other very important magazines out there, ACM comes to mind, but if you want to support a grass-roots magazine dedicated to free software, and what developers like you and I can accomplish, this project definitely deserves your attention and support.
*waits patiently for Tony Mobily, editor in chief of FSM, to extend his subscription for his evangelical work*
I haven't lost my mind!
It is backed up on disk...somewhere...
PHP|Architect is a good source for web-related technologies. Of course, it's mostly about PHP, so if you don't like PHP, it's a bad choice. (Just don't start yet an other anti-PHP flame war here, everything is covered in other discussions).
I've been a subscriber for two years of the PDF version, and switched to the printed version a few months ago.
Qui ne va pas à la chasse n'a pas de gibier
PHP Queb
I like Dr. Dobbs Journal, C/C++ Users Journal, Communications of the ACM and IEEE CGA.
:p
If you haven't heard of DDJ or CUJ before, give them both a try. DDJ covers all sorts of stuff and (as an example) the October '05 CUJ had the best accidental intro to template metaprogramming I've ever seen.
One of CACM's selling points is that the articles are regularly featured on slashdot.
IMO, IEEE CGA is much more useful to me than any of ACM's SIGGRAPH stuff. This is only relevant if you're into computer graphics at all.
I'm thinking of joining the Association of C/C++ Users for it's C-Vu journal, I dunno.
I read 2600 for the hell of it.
Your mileage will vary.
[o]_O
But I like MIT Technology Review.
It's frequently got stuff in there that gets me thinking about new ideas.
IEEE Software is my favorite software development magazine. It tends to straddle the academic and professional worlds in a way that most other publications don't. To give you a sense of how good it is, it was once edited by the author of Code Complete, and it features a column by the guys who wrote "The Pragmatic Programmer".
They're not a "programming magazine", but every month they do have programming related columns. It's a UK magazine, but it's available in the US at places like Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million. http://www.pcplus.co.uk/
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
Frankly, there are no great magazines, but there are a lot of great articles. Most of them are never put to a glossy page.
Read blogs. Surf. Find your community. Keep reading those books. That is the way to keep growing.
Oh, so that's YOUR spaghetti coded, pointer abusing, self modifying nightmare of a 10,000 line function I spent the last 6 months debugging!
You are going about it all wrong.
Reading (most) books and (nearly all) magazines is a waste of time. If you want to improve your coding sk1lz, read and _understand_ someone else's source code instead. Of course, the best way of doing this is to jump in a start adding features or fixing bugs on an existing project. For something easy, start with Linux or the BSD source trees. For more of a challenge, start hacking Mozilla or OOo.
The more source you see, the more source you hack, the better the source you write.
-- "So, what's the deal with Auntie Gerschwitz et all?"
"101 Internet Businesses you can start from home" lists E-Zines (online magazines) as one. So how come no one has started replacements for all the above titles that have gone by the wayside? It's easy, right? Just like making music is, right?
Books like:
"Holub on Patterns: Learning design patterns by looking at code by Allan Holub"
The ACCU, which is primarily UK-based but has a US chapter, produces a bi-monthly magazine that is primarily focused on C and C++, but also covers Java and Python. It also has excellent book reviews and runs a cracking conference (in the UK) every year.
about Gentoo?
So, to all you experienced developers, which are the top software development magazines?
Definitely Slashdot, you should subscribe to them immediately. Quality journalism by a professional company. Well worth it.
Yes, I remember it. Great magazine. Where have you gone?!?!
Other than digging up back issues of Byte and similar great magazines, you can subscribe to new IEEE journals and to RSS feeds of code updates (I'm sure someone has done this, if not, MozDev may start doing this after people start reading this, nice way to know if you need to re-download from CVS 20 minutes after you just grabbed everything.), or just grab the CVS version of some actively developed applications once per week and see what's changed.
Video Production Support
Magazine are for the weak, get CiteSeer, and a library subscription to a University library.
Of any non-academic magazines, Game Developer Magazine is by the far the hardest of the hardcore when it comes to programming and computer science. Plus its fun stuff (but not easy!). Its tough to get a sub if you aren't in the games industry, but if you manage to get one, you won't be disappointed.
I agree with you. Do you (or anyone else) have suggestions for good programming blogs?
I like http://lamba-the-ultimate.org/, the blogs of Andy and Dave, authors of "The Pragmatic Programmer".
Shae Erisson - ScannedInAvian.com
SysAdmin, Linux Journal and Linux.
Occasionally: Java Developers Journal, PHP|Architect and Dr. Dobbs
CLiki [cliki.net], a programming language blog. Contains lots of stuff on programming languages and paradigms, including debates on merits and disadvantages.
:-)
;-)
That's not true. CLiki is just the Common Lisp wiki; meaning everything Common Lisp, specially those that satisfy the Debian license. From the site:
"Links to and resources for free software implemented in Common Lisp and available on Unix-like systems. Listed software should satisfy the Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG)."
ll-discuss, a mailing list related to programming language concepts. Perhaps most interesting if you're into language implementation, but it's the closest thing to a magazine that I can recommend.
Not really. ll-discuss is for small light-weight languages (think scripting languages, or tiny dynamic languages) The "ll" stands for Light-weight Languages actually, and it grew from the conference by the same name.
People who are into language design frequent LtU. Or more likely they're busy reading their huge required reading list
Bugtraq is for security specialists, or people who code in C/C++
Practical Common Lisp is a book, not a magazine.
How to Design Programs is an entry level programming book, meant to teach high schoolers and people with NO programming experience. Any CS graduate should be intimately familiar with its teachings, and that of the more grown-up SICP.
If you'll be writing for the MS platform, MSDN magazine is essential.
They all did that. It was a side-effect of the dot bomb.
Best Slashdot Co
Linux Journal and Linux Magazine.
Best Slashdot Co
To be blunt, IME almost all printed software development magazines suck these days, at least in all the fields I work in (C, C++, OOP-related things, various scripting languages, various web-related things, general interest). The articles are frequently poorly written, poorly reviewed, inaccurate, misleading, and/or just plain obvious to anyone who read a good book or worked in the business for about five minutes.
I guess I'm like the original poster, but a few years further down the line now: I'm always looking for useful sources of information and insight to broaden my horizons and develop my software skills. These days, I find that for depth, little beats a good book, while for keeping up with recent ideas, the web is a much better resource than print magazines or journals. It's hard to give useful links without knowing more specifically which subjects the asker is interested in, but I've found that in most fields, there are a handful of useful e-zines, blogs by key industry players or just people with interesting thoughts, Usenet newsgroups, and electronic versions of the better printed articles. I'd recommend spending a few hours looking into these before shelling out any hard-earned cash on print magazines.
As starting points for research, I'd recommend two things:
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Dear Slashdot,
We're running out of marketing quotes to promote our magazines. Please provide us with something that will let us claim "Voted #1 on Slashdot!".
Thanks,
CMP
--- that said, my vote goes for the Compute! Gazette
Ryosen
One man's "Troll, +1" is another man's "Insightful, +1".
You might also want to consider some audio magazines (ie podcasts). ITconverstions is a good place to start.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
If you're hardcore into leading-edge language stuff (and based on the functional programming references I figure you might be), Lambda the Ultimate'll give you a run for your money.
Don't confine your reading to publications that are strictly about programming. Be sure to read about overall trends in the IT industry to stay up to date. CIO magazine is a good resource for this, and you can even get it free if you tell them you're a manager (no, they don't verify it). To have a long term rewarding career as a programmer, it is essential to know what the business trends are in IT so you don't find yourself suddenly outsourced and obsolete.
I used to love reading Steve Ciarcia's "Circuit Cellar". I first started reading his article in the print edition of "Byte magazine" before he started his own magazine. Along the same lines I also liked to read Jerry Pournelle's "Chaos Manor" in the same magazine.
FalconShould there be a Law?
It's quite a bit cheaper if you're a member, but I love IEEE Software magazine.
Milalwi
I spend atleast one lunch break a week answering questions in the programming forum or some subforum at experts-exchange.
... it's always a good excuse to spend time answering people's questions, which usually involves coding - i always write/test the code for people so I A) practice coding B) can get the source later if i need it for a project.
... depending on the forum, the questions may generally be too easy for you, but most questions are posted by IT professionals like yourself, so they can be fun to figure out and answer.
... I read a lot of books and I refactor old projects using new methods or I test design patterns or ... I do a lot of .NET coding so I couldn't live without my MSDN firefox search engine (also made one for the codeproject, which has some GREAT articles).
To keep a premium account with them for free, you need to get atleast 3000 expert points a month
They have forums for abunchof languages
Besides that
Haha, well at least I know its not mine. I don't even know what a pointer is.
Who is filling your pockets? You don't learn by reading but doing! If you can't do it then get hired by IBM so that you can get into their teaching program.
How to Design Programs is an entry level programming book, meant to teach high schoolers and people with NO programming experience. Any CS graduate should be intimately familiar with its teachings, and that of the more grown-up SICP.
One would like to think so. However, given the "quality" of a number of posts here on slashdot, it seems not to be the case. It seems that too many folk out there never grasped concepts as basic as recursion, much less HOF, and could do with a refresher from something like HTDP.
As for SICP, it's a wonderful book, but a terrible read. I'm guessing a lot of people out there would fare better with the Abelson & Sussman lecture videos.
-30-
Don't think you can learn programming from reading - even from something as useful as the IEEE Magazine or Dr. Dobb's.
The only way you can really *learn* is: rolling up your sleeves, getting hard at it, making the unavoidable errors, consulting other programmers.
Try to get yourself mentored by a senior engineer.
Most of all: love what you do ! ( Otherwise, you might as well become a milkman or a state welfare employee )
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
Switch context and start learning as much as you can about the business. Read Harvard Business Review, I think it is the most valuable magazine on the market. In today's world you have to be aware that being the best programmer in your company can only get you so far. Being the best (programmer that knows the most about the business) will elevate you further than just a pure technical background. We can no longer rest comfortable on our thrones of technical knowledge, it is now in best interests to be the best (computer science + multifield cross discipline learner) because learning how to apply your knowledge to real business (in order to make the business perform better) will be the main reason the company chooses you instead of some dude in india. (sorry india) :)
In my opinion, reading is the best way to keep up and keep adding value to your skillset. One thing I realized I learned from college, and I think you learned as well, is how to learn. The best publication probably depends on what your programming interest is. There are so many choices out there. I am currently a .NET developer and I get a lot of advanced knowledge from MSDN magazine and some other websites like Code Project and Experts-Exchange. Experts-Exchange is a great way to help other people with their problems and learn things at the same time.
Also, there is a certain publication that I read... Visual Studio Magazine. Now, IMHO, VSM is somewhat childish compared to other more sophisticated magazines, but I have to tell you that once in a while I will read an article that gives me a GREAT idea. But this is once in a while... like once a year.
The thing I love about reading is that there is definitely a quantifiable payback from the time invested. It is not immediate, but it is certainly quantifiable. Like more $$$ and BMWs BABY!!!!!
I'm a bit biased because I'm directly involved in it, but http://webdevradio.com/ aims to be a podcast covering web development topics. It's been a bit of a mixed bag so far, primarily because I'm learning the production part as I go along, but I aim to continue to make it better, both with experience and with feedback from people (hopefully) like yourself. We've recently joined the techpodcasts.com community, and I can say that there's a good selection of tech development podcasts there too. http://polymorphicpodcast.com/ and http://softwareas.com/ spring to mind (not sure if softwareas.com is a podcast or not, I just follow the site).
creation science book
Do you know of anything similar for ruby developers with a focus on web work?