Best Reference Site For Each Programming Language?

Howling writes "I've been a PHP programmer for a few years and after taking a trip through many sites Ive learned that www.php.net is probably the most complete source when looking for information/documentation. I have been trying to find similar sites for every other language (Java, perl or ASP, for instance) without equal success, though. I ask: what is the best documentation/reference site for your preferred programming language?"

Comments

Perl and Python

[mangu]

cpan.org and python.org

Re:Perl and Python

[SatanicPuppy]

Agreed. I'd also add Perlmonks.org; it's not documentation per se but it's damn useful.

For java, you have to master the API...Even modules that other people write are often documented with javadoc, and look just the same. Once you use it for a while it becomes familiar.

Re:Perl and Python

[mr_mischief]

perldoc.perl.org

use Perl; comes high on the list, along with PerlMonks and PerlBuzz.

Perl.org in general gets points for being where you can find Use, perldoc, and more.

Re:Perl and Python

[Anonymous Coward]

C was my favorite language for about 20 years, and it still would be if Python hadn't come out.

You know this of course, but I thought I'd mention that your C experience isn't wasted as a Python programmer. The cycle: design in Python => profile => redo bottlenecks in C, is the basis of industrial strength Python application.

Re:Perl and Python

[Bogtha]

However, I do know of a really good author, that is a "dead tree" author, for C: Herbert Schildt.

I used to recommend his books too, but he has a bad reputation among many developers:

Why do many experts not think very highly of Herbert Schildt's books?

A good answer to this question could fill a book by itself. While no book is perfect, Schildt's books, in the opinion of many gurus, seem to positively aim to mislead learners and encourage bad habits. Schildt's beautifully clear writing style only makes things worse by causing many "satisfied" learners to recommend his books to other learners.

Do take a look at the following scathing articles before deciding to buy a Schildt text.
http://www.lysator.liu.se/c/schildt.html
http://herd.plethora.net/~seebs/c/c_tcr.html

The above reviews are admittedly based on two of Schildt's older books. However, the language they describe has not changed in the intervening period, and several books written at around the same time remain highly regarded.

The following humorous post also illustrates the general feeling towards Schildt and his books.

http://www.qnx.com/~glen/deadbeef/2764.html

There is exactly one and ONLY one C book bearing Schildt's name on its cover that is at all recommended by many C experts - see Q 25.

Java.sun.com

[acon1modm]

just google: java X class where X is whatever you want. Top results will be sun java docs which are complete and have links to parent and descendent classes, implemented interfaces, etc.

Re:Java.sun.com

[Vectronic]

http://java.sun.com/reference/

Samples, API, Docs, Tutorials, etc.
(redudndant, but people usually like links)

Re:Java.sun.com

[B4D BE4T]

I agree. I have been using Java for a while now and have always found the information I needed at java.sun.com. Just about anything you could want to know about Java can be found in the reference section. The API section has all of the classes listed alphabetically for the more recent versions of Java with a fairly detailed description of each class and its methods.

Re:Java.sun.com

[Reverend528]

There is also the Java Forums which is a great place to ask people to do your intro CS homework and get flamed.

ASP

[Anonymous Coward]

for asp: asp.net. has very good tutorials. for reference use msdn library.

Here's what I do

[shellster_dude]

php: php.net
coldfusion: adobe.com
html, css, javascript, sql: w3schools.com
python: python.org
c/c++: devshed.com
java: java.sun.com

Anything else: my brilliant co-worker.

Re:Here's what I do

[MrMunkey]

For JavaScript I head over to

developer.mozilla.org

It's pretty clear, but unfortunately you still have to watch out for browser incompatibilities. They sometimes will have a note about it though.

Re:Here's what I do

[apathy maybe]

html, css, javascript, sql: w3schools.com

Why oh why would you go to w3schools (ad filled piece of shit), when you go directly to the source for all the HTML and CSS requirements?

For example, want to learn HTML?
http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/
http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/Advanced.html

Already know HTML but want to do one thing (or can't remember the exact syntax?)?
http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/

Do a search through the HTML 4.01 Specification.
Similarly for XHTML.

CSS tips and tricks? You got them all.

Just learning? Get started with HTML and CSS. Other CSS resources all also easily available.

Oh right, and don't forget the authoritative text...

Basically, for HTML and CSS, it is much better for both beginners and advanced users to go to the W3C rather then the ad filled crap w3schools.

Re:Here's what I do

[fredrik70]

also nice: http://www.quirksmode.org/

Tcl -- use the Wikibook

[Xcott Craver]

One of the best tutorials and references for Tcl is the Wikibook on Tcl programming.

Indeed, it's one of the best programming texts I've seen in any language.

Object Pascal and C

[jmpeax]

Object Pascal reference & C reference.

Suggestions for perl

[howlinmonkey]

Documentation: peldoc.perl.org
Community: perlmonks.org
Articles: www.perl.com (O'Reilly site)

I have found the perl community to be the most open, supportive and cohesive group of all the languages I work with. Right now I am working with PHP, perl and C#, and perl is by far the easiest language to get help and correct information. I can find tons of info on the other languages, but the information isn't always the best quality.

Good luck with your search.

C/C++

[Kuraitou]

http://cprogramming.com/ - best site for beginners in my opinion.

Re:C/C++

[nog_lorp]

www.cplusplus.com

Beats the hell out of man pages for the POSIX C libraries.

Re:C/C++

[Simon80]

Standard Template Library:

• SGI reference - readable, comes with informative explanations of concepts
• libstdc++ reference - less readable, but it may have some non-standard things that aren't in the SGI docs, useful if you're using libstd++

Boost libraries:
For anything not present in the standard library, these are the next place to check. They're freely usable in commercial projects.

Re:C/C++

[Anonymous Coward]

http://cppreference.com/ - easy guide to the STL

stack overflow question

[fragbait]

Perhaps this a question for Stack Overflow?

-fragbait

C: K&R.

[proidiot]

For C, use the most holy book:
K&R
(aka "The C Programming Language" by Kernighan and Ritchie, http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/cbook/)

Re:C: K&R.

[mr_mischief]

Make sure to use the second edition, which covers ANSI C (which is practically ISO C89).

www.gotapi.com

[YutakaFrog]

http://www.gotapi.com/ It's got all the good reference sites in one. You click the reference site, it adds a tab to the gotAPI webpage. It has a really good search box. No signup required. Best all-in-one reference ever.

Other languages

[poopie]

SNOBOL - http://www.snobol4.org/

Logo - http://el.media.mit.edu/Logo-foundation/logo/programming.html

FORTH - http://www.phact.org/e/forth.htm

Prolog - http://www.logic.at/prolog/faq/faq.html

Algol - http://www.algol68.org/

Lucid - http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Lucid

PL/I - http://www.users.bigpond.com/robin_v/resource.htm

FYI

[Anonymous Coward]

If you use Eclipse you can configure the javadoc URL in your JDK configuration and pull up the pages from within the IDE. VERY handy.

Parashift

[D Ninja]

C++ FAQ Lite is an excellent site for C++ information.

Lua

[Samah]

Lua:
Official website: http://www.lua.org/
Direct link to manual: http://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/
Lua community: http://lua-users.org/wiki/

Re:Scheme

[c0nman]

Quick Ref
QuickRef currently includes: C, C++, CSS, HTML, HTML DOM, Java, JavaScript, MySQL, Perl, PHP, Python, and Ruby

Ruby

[SanityInAnarchy]

The official site is always a good bet. But I also make it a habit to memorize the url to the rdoc of whatever I'm doing:

ruby-doc.org/core
api.rubyonrails.org

Beyond that, it's more about the framework. For example:

ramaze.net
sequel.rubyforge.org

Beyond that, there's the source (and IRB + tab-completion), and for the really tough questions, the ruby-talk mailing list.

Can't really recommend the jQuery docs, as they're down half the time, the UI is lacking some critical features, and it doesn't seem to quite work in Konqueror. For a library claiming to be cross-browser, you should at least have your docs be cross-browser!

Re:Scheme

[Anonymous Coward]

gotapi currently includes many many more and has a nice ajaxy interface.

Re:DevGuru.com

[dwarfsoft]

For VBScript I tend to use google to find specific things. I haven't found one site that really covers enough in one place. Most people will write off VBScript being that it is Microsoft and Windows is evil and all that.

Seeing as I use VBScript mainly for natively being able to pull information from LDAP directories from a Windows XP machine I must at least defend it.

MS Scripting Guy, DevGuru, 4GuysFromRolla, and last but not least ActiveXperts.

It depends if I want info on WMI, LDAP, or general WSH Objects.

For VB or MSVC++ its MSDN.

The main source of information just is.

*Ducks*

Re:gExp

[zobier]

http://www.regular-expressions.info/

I'll just leave this here.

Re:Scheme

[halfnerd]

Would you actually rather read the pdf, which can't be reflowed, instead of html, which can be reflowed, if both would be available as a single file download?

At least on mobile devices such as the Nokia N810 I prefer reflowable formats. Actually I prefer them on the desktop also.

Objective-C and Cocoa

[wumpus188]

Almost 300 replies and no mention of Objective-C ?

developer.apple.com - Apple documentation, good reference but sometimes lacking in details
cocoadev.com - Cocoa wiki
cocoabuilder.com - Cocoa mailing list archives

C/C++/Java/Perl/Python references

[phrank]

C
    The GNU C Library
    http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/

C++
    Standard Template Library Programmer's Guide
    http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/

    Boost C++ Libraries
    http://www.boost.org/doc/libs

Java
    Java(TM) Platform, Standard Edition 6 API Specification
    http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/

Perl
    Perl version 5.10.0 documentation
    http://perldoc.perl.org/

Python
    Python Library Reference
    http://docs.python.org/lib/lib.html

For learning C and C++, I recommend these books:

    Kernighan, Ritchie: The C Programming language
    Kernighan, Pike: The Practice Of Programming
    Koenig, Moo: Accelerated C++: Practical Programming by Example
    Sutter, Alexandrescu: C++ Coding Standards