Best Websites for Developers? 291
Recently, I've been entertaining the idea of getting into a little Java programming for a side project I'm working on, and I realized that I really don't know where to start. This led to a larger question of what the best books and websites are for pepole new to a language. What about for the experts in a language? So this week, I was wondering what slashdotters thought are the best websites to go to for information on the major languages (like C, C++, PHP, Perl, etc) and the important topics in programming (x, gtk, win32, etc). I obviously have some opinions on some of the better places to visit, but I wanted to see what slashdotters thought. (hence the paucity of links in this story) Where do people find the authorities? My intention is to ask about web sites this weekend, and books next weekend.
For any windows.. (Score:1, Informative)
Re:For any windows.. (Score:2)
I also use webmonkey when I need to learn the very basics (it's good for introductions to topics you know absolutely nothing about).
Re:For any windows.. (Score:2, Informative)
Paucity? (Score:2, Funny)
For PHP... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:For PHP... (Score:2)
msdn (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:msdn (Score:3, Informative)
google for site:msdn.microsoft.com [google.com]
Re:msdn (Score:2)
EventID.net [eventid.net]
A Programmer's Heaven (Score:4, Informative)
devx.com (Score:3, Interesting)
a good one (Score:2, Redundant)
very cool
My favs (Score:1)
http://busa.village.virginia.edu/devlinks.html
i'm a PHP guru... (Score:2, Informative)
after they sold the site, i don't visit as much, but it is still the best place for a newbie PHP developer to go and get some good help.
For news, cafeaulait and cafeconleche (Score:5, Informative)
PHP, go to the source (Score:3, Informative)
online documentation at php.net
[php.net]
php documentation
I have bought a few PHP books,
and nothing compares to having
a bookmark to the online documentation.
I have noticed, that books tend
to write examples in an OO style,
and that is not something that
comes across from reading the
code snippets in the comments
in the online documentation.
Go to the mothership (Score:2, Informative)
If you are new to the language make sure you visit the tutorials page and the api javadoc documentation.
For anything related to a Mac (including BSD Unix) (Score:2, Informative)
http://developer.apple.com
Not only does it provide reference guides, but tutorials, examples etc. The quality of the information is as good or better than professional publishing houses. And the developer took kit (i.e., IDE) is free.
You do need to sign up for most of the features, just like it is for New York Times (blah blah blah)...
Did you ask google? (Score:2)
Well.. Did you!?
Re:Did you ask google? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Did you ask google? (Score:2, Funny)
until Carmack writes a book .. (Score:2)
Carmack is overrated (Score:2)
IF he did write a book on C it would be good for game programmers to read maybe.
My two favorites for web stuff. (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.devshed.com [devshed.com]
Webmonkey:
http://www.webmonkey.com [webmonkey.com]
Both are VERY good.
Top 3 Java Websites (Score:5, Informative)
Java programming sites (Score:2, Informative)
The following sites I use daily (I'm a prof. programmer, currently in Java):
http://java.sun.com
- tutorials, reference API's and language spec.
http://www.theserverside.com
- information about server-side programming,
news, general interest
http://otn.oracle.com
- SQL & PL/SQL reference, free account
http://jakarta.apache.org
- tools, toolkits & infrastructure
http://www.w3.org
- RFC's (like HTTP), HTML specs, CSS, etc.
http://www.slashdot.org
- when running tests or building (goofing off)
Obligatory plug... (Score:2)
-9mm-
...what i do (Score:2, Insightful)
most respectable languages have good online documentation (java, perl, php, python, ruby) -- manuals are great for "small" questions like getting the equivalent of switch/case to work. however, if you really want to master the language -- read a book.
www.barnesandnoble.com (Score:2)
Later, I ended up browsing the Java API documentation on java.sun.com, then I found out that the entire documentation kit can be downloaded; which I did and I now have the entire Java API in
I'm quite happy with the results. When I have some free time, I spend it playing with the java app that I wrote, which I use to keep track of my checkbook (no need for quicken); Swing, JDBC (Postgres), RMI, and the new SSL/TLS classes in Java 1.4. All of the documentation one can possibly need can be grabbed from java.sun.com.
For advanced C++ stuff (Score:4, Informative)
For technical questions about C++, you really can't beat comp.lang.c++.moderated. I browse it a lot, but rarely post. Despite studying the langauge for 3 years, my knowledge of the langauge is like nothing compared to the better posters there.
Google Groups for the comp.lang.c++.moderated [google.com]
A lot of very knowlegible people post there, people who have sold quite a few books about C++ and members of the C++ standardization committee.
Another good site for advanced C++ stuff is the C/C++ Users Journal [cuj.com], a lot of the aforementioned C++ authors post articles, often that are chapters from books.
More C++ resources (Score:2)
For a more comprehensive resource, also in FAQ format, check out the C++ FAQ-lite [parashift.com] by Marshall Cline.
For J2EE Tutorials (Score:4, Informative)
Re:For J2EE Tutorials (Score:2, Informative)
Some Starter Sites (Score:2, Informative)
WASP [webstandards.org] would be a good place for all newbs to start.
WASP [webreference.com]
Find Tutorials [findtutorials.com] is a good general tutorial finder.
PHP
First LAMP tutorial [lycos.com]
PHP.net [php.net]
PHP Help [phphelp.com]
There are tons of good
For Win32... (Score:2, Informative)
But for arcane Win32 API calls you can't beat Google Groups [google.com]. The Microsoft MVPs hang out in the developer groups and give useful information from time to time. (And wrong information sometimes too.)
The only downside to Usenet is when you find the only post with the same problem as you is from 1996 and received 0 replies.
DHTML and MySQL references (Score:2)
Hold your breath and try MSDN [microsoft.com]. It's got everything about everything for MSIE, from HTML to scripting, from tutorials to reference. I'm not a big fan of Microsoft, but MSDN is truly useful. It's also a good reference for CSS2 properties, since these are thankfully the same (and reasonably well supported) on both MSIE and Mozilla.
To ensure cross-browser DHTML compatibility however, cross-reference with the Gecko DOM reference [mozilla.org] from the Mozilla project. It's DHTML for Mozilla; the model is completely different sadly but it works, and it's possible to write code that works for both MSIE and Mozilla/Gecko simultaneously with a little thought -- I learned most of what I know from Dan Steinman's excellent dynamic duo [dansteinman.com] site.
If you're also using PHP, then you'll probably end up using MySQL as well. I learned most of the SQL I know simply by reading the MySQL manual [mysql.com]. It's just as useful as the PHP Manual.
use Google not MSDN search though (Score:2)
I type the same words into Google, I get a list of relevant web pages at MSDN.
So now I use Google for all my MSDN searches.
The best resource for developers (Score:5, Funny)
Learn with Code (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Learn with Code (Score:3, Informative)
then it's good idea to check
my Real's HowTo [rgagnon.com]. Many topics covered.
Bye.
IBM DeveloperWorks (Score:5, Informative)
Alphaworks (Score:3, Informative)
Perlmonks (Score:4, Informative)
For learning perl. . . (Score:2)
They may also be in perldoc format, but I haven't bothered checking. . .
It's not a "major" language, but for OCaml... (Score:2, Informative)
Though it's not (yet =) one of the "major" languages, but it's pretty awesome. Here are some things I've learned and resources I've discovered.
What is OCaml? In a sentence, "fast modern type-inferring functional programming language." But not only does it support the functional programming paradigm, but also imperative and object-oriented models. (These can be mixed in a single program.) OCaml is type-safe and garbage collected. (But even though it's garbage collected, it runs at speeds comparable to C and C++.)
Why use OCaml? Here are some good reasons:
What kind of things have been implemented in OCaml? Check out the Caml Hump [inria.fr].
OCaml was developed in France, so the "bible" of the language (O'Reilly's Développement d'applications avec Objective Caml - the camel book) is written in French, but a translation of the work by volunteers has been created. Check out Developing Applications with Objective Caml [inria.fr].
The language's official page [inria.fr] at INRIA in France.
Another good OCaml page [ocaml.org]
Yay OCaml!
Here's a site for Objective-C programmers (Score:4, Insightful)
http://www.cetus-links.org/oo_objective_c.html
And even if you don't know ObjC, it's always a good time to start. Object Oriented! C! Not C++! 3 big wins!
Excellent site for web dev topics and tutorials (Score:2)
Best HTML/JS Reference (Score:2)
Whenever I need to lookup a quick command spec, he's got it there for me.
As for Javascript:
http://developer.irt.org/script/script.htm [irt.org]
Always has answers to many different aspects of JS.
O'Reilly Safari! (Score:5, Informative)
Of course something like this isn't free, but its not expensive either. About 10 bucks a month gets you the ability to "subscribe" to about 5 books for 30 days and read them online, or print them! (yes, the terms allow for printing). At the end of the 30 days you can trade in your books and subscribe to new ones. There are other levels of subscription also. It's been one of the best programming resources I've used in a long time. Not just articles and tutorials like you normally find, but real, published, books online, chapters of information. You can even bookmark pages, and add notes to them.
Re:O'Reilly Safari! (Score:5, Informative)
Second that... Safari completely rocks, especially for stuff you don't really want the physical book for. For example, a second book on a topic you're learning, or if you know O'Reilly's coming out with a new edition in July but you want to read the old one in June. Also if you want to just skim over a certain topic.
Forinstance, on one of my KDE desktops, I have a couple Safari books on Java sitting in a tabbed Mozilla window, constantly available at my fingertips, along with an open emacs window to cut and paste code.
The price increases as you go above 5 books, and drops again when you go below (they actually have several subscription levels and I think deals for companies, etc.).
It's not all O'Reilly books, they have PLENTY of other books too.
And the pages are just HTML, easy to print, copy source code from, etc. They even work in Lynx. They have a good search engine too, that shows results in context, and you can search all books, not just the ones you've paid for.
Great deal, I wish O'Reilly would push it more... though I could see how they might not want to cannibalize their regular book sales.
Give that a go, they have a free try before you buy offer.
For perl... (Score:4, Informative)
Some I like... (Score:5, Informative)
People
Richard Stallman [stallman.org] -
Eric S. Raymond [tuxedo.org] -
Larry Wall [wall.org]
Linux Programming
Linux Programming Resources [leapster.org] -Kernel Traffic [zork.net]
Unix
Unix Review [unixreview.com] -Sys Admin [samag.com] -
Art of Unix Programming [tuxedo.org]
Programming Methodologies
Extreme Programming [extremeprogramming.org]C Programming
Programming in C [cf.ac.uk] -Standard C [ucsd.edu] -
C Library Reference [uiuc.edu] -
GNU C Library [gnu.org]
C++ Programming
David Beech's Introduction to C++ [codelearn.com] -C++ for C Programmers [4p8.com]
Perl Programming
Perl Doc [perldoc.com] -Perl Monks [perlmonks.org] -
Perl.com [perl.com] -
VMS Perl [sidhe.org] -
Use Perl [perl.org]
Network Programming
Beej's Guide to Network Programming [csuchico.edu]Open Source
Open Projects [openprojects.net] -Sourceforge [sourceforge.net] -
Slashcode [slashcode.com] -
The Cathedral and the Bazaar [tuxedo.org]
Re:Some I like... (Score:2)
Great... Not like I had anything to DO today... now I'm going to spend all day browsing these links.
-Russ
Go to the web? I don't. (Score:2)
Otherwise, during the bulk of my time where I'm C and Objective/C++ programming, all I need is K&R (rarely anymore) and Bjarne Stroustrup's C++. That and the API documentation that came with the OS.
And really, for Java I download the
A /. like developers website (Score:2)
There's a really good site out there (Score:2)
Best... (Score:2)
- Go to book store.
- Find computer section.
- Find white book with nice sketch of animal (ignoring the weird photo ones) on the cover.
- Find one that matches whatever you want to learn.
- Buy it.
If you want, you can buy other books by O'Reilly on other subjects you're curious about. They always seem to end up being worth the money.As for PHP, the best resource for that is the plain and simple php.net [php.net]. Not only is the entire language documented, every function definition contains examples and discussion on it. What more could you ask for?
Thinking in Java, 3rd Edition (Score:3, Informative)
C++ sites (Score:2)
Two sites I refer to frequently for C++:
SGI's reference to the STL [sgi.com].
cpluslus.com [cplusplus.com], most notably the "standard libraries" reference link on the left there (for looking up bits and pieces of the iostreams library).
-Rob
IBM's "robocode" Java tutorial is fun (Score:2, Insightful)
Tcl resources (Score:2, Informative)
I'm amazed that there is nothing here about Tcl. I use everything from shell to C to Perl, but Tcl is consistenly one of my favorite languages. I don't know why it doesn't get more respect.
Anyway, Activestate [activestate.com] is a great place to start, especially the cookbook [activestate.com]. The weekly Tcl-URL is published at Dr Dobbs [ddj.com]. The Tcl Developer Xchange [resource.tcl.tk] also has a lot of resources. Most of the major Tcl developers hang out in comp.lang.tcl (probably one of the most civil newsgroups there is). Quick answers to questions are always available there.
Are you serious?! (Score:2, Insightful)
If you really want to be a developer, then learn how to learn how, dig in, and get busy. Those of us who are serious know this for what it is: a plea for attention.
If there were no good materials from which to learn, I would be more sympathetic. As it is, you're just wasting time.
php.net is the best resource (Score:2, Informative)
I have found it incredibly useful, and searching for functions a breeze. If you need to find out a function to perform a particular task, then do a quick google search or go onto irc.openprojects.net or some other server and join a channel and ask for a function - then look that function up on php.net.
If you don't know programming, then a resource I have found useful for web based programming (mysql & php specifically) is www.devshed.com [devshed.com], with tutorials on a few different topics.
For game related programming and a number of topics related to that (opengl, directx, ai, etc) then www.gamedev.net [gamedev.net] is excellent. For opengl you can't go past NeHe Productions [gamedev.net].
C++ Standard Library (Score:2, Informative)
1. SGI's STL Reference [sgi.com]
2. Reference for iostreams and standard C library [cplusplus.com]
And don't forget man pages in unices and msdn in windows.
zerg (Score:5, Informative)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/ [microsoft.com].
http://www.codeproject.com/ [codeproject.com]
http://www.codeguru.com/ [codeguru.com]
I recently discovered another site which has saved me alot of trouble, though I doubt a linuxweenie would ever need it: WinForms FAQ [syncfusion.com]
for OOP Criticism (Score:2, Informative)
http://geocities.com/tablizer/oopbad.htm
(Back, evil moderator, back! Sit!)
Perl & PHP (Score:2, Insightful)
Take a look at someones else's code relating to what you are working on, improve it, change it, fiddle with it, you'll end up learning faster (at least I did) by looking at someones elses code to get ideas.
C++ recommendation (Score:5, Insightful)
"Thinking in C++" (available online)
Can't recommend it highly enough (if you need to code C++).
For Scheme (and Computer Science in general), the book Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs is hard to beat, and available online at MIT Press homepage, as is the book "How to Design Programs" (www.htdp.org). I also enjoyed reading Gary Knott's "Interpreting LISP" which can be downloaded off the web. For a nice intro to designing programming languages, check out the lecture notes available at:
http://www.cs.brown.edu/courses/cs173/2001/Lect
one site : java.sun.com (Score:2)
Huge amount of tutorials, tips, tricks, etc.
It's flat out the best programming site on the web.
Experts Exchange (Windows Programming) (Score:3, Interesting)
It's a great place to post/respond to windows programming questions. It uses a point-based system, so everyone's encouraged to help each other out. I once was stuck in a rut with a complex problem and received a well-detailed response in a matter of minutes! High on my list.
www.devguru.com (Score:3, Informative)
ADO, ASP, CSS2, HTML, JavaScript, Jet SQL, VBScript, WML, WMLScript, WSH, XHTML, XML DOM, XSLT are all covered.
ASP - www.learnasp.com (Score:2)
Surf over to lernasp.com [learnasp.com] and check out "Classic ASP" if you're a vb programmer who hasn't bit into
[/flame suit]
some quickies... (Score:3, Informative)
Comments: If you've got a programming background, this website is all you need. If you don't have a programming background, an introductory book and this website is all you need.
HTML, Javascript, DHTML, XML, DTD, etc.: W3Schools.com [w3schools.com]
Comments: Good introductions to a ton of topics on the left-hand side.
SQL: SQLCourse.com [sqlcourse.com]
Comments: The first place I ever pointed my students to for SQL and probably the perfect quick source for anything up until the level of stored procedures, transactions, etc., which vary depending on the DB implementation anyway.
C++/C/Java textbooks: ACCU.org [accu.org]
Comments: Lots of book reviews on a bunch of topics. To be honest, I still haven't seen a website that covers these three languages as well as good books do.
After all this, hone your google [google.com] and google.groups [google.com] skills and you should be able to solve any problem.
You probably don't want to start here (Score:2, Funny)
Fortran! (Score:2)
Well, for those like myself who are forced to beat their heads against the wall that is Fortran, there's a great introduction [qub.ac.uk] over at the Queen's Universoty of Belfast. So far it's told me all the basic syntax stuff I need, so it makes a really handy reference.
As for Fortran 77 [shudder] (and yes, I have to work with it regularly...), a search for prof77 [google.ca] readily yields a relatively tiny document that contains pretty much all the F77 information you'll ever need -- it's shockingly complete considering its size. I recommend finding a .ps version.
Operating Systems (Score:2)
-Chris
Usenet (Score:2)
-Bill
Dummies books (Score:2)
Great books! I learned more in 5 minutes with the C++ for dummies book than I learned with the other 5 or so C++ books I have tried to use. I'd recommend getting a Dummies book, and get a large reference(rather than tutorial) book... the Dummies book will give you the basic knowledge and fundamentals, and the reference book will give you the specifics.
The original wiki... (Score:4, Informative)
mysql (Score:2)
sites I visit almost every day (Score:3, Interesting)
Devshed [devshed.com] - I think someone already posted this link, but it's a really good source of tutorials and real world applications.
Freshmeat [freshmeat.net] - Whenever someone tells me that they need a certain functionality, I look here first to save me some time.
Index.html and Index.css at Blooberry.com [blooberry.com] - no doubt the BEST HTML and CSS references available on the web. Tells you what elements and tags are supported by every browser out there, what version of the browser supports them, and any strange behavior that the browsers might exhibit related to that tag or element.
IBM Alphaworks [ibm.com] - Lots of cutting edge software.
PHP (Score:2)
Sometimes the best way to learn a particular language is by example and trial-and-error
NEC ResearchIndex CiteSeer (Score:2)
C++ Reference (Score:2)
BlackGriffen
python QT and KDE3? (Score:2)
This kinda stuff seems very tough to find. The only one I found depended on using a commercial IDE which did not interest me. All free software please. thanks.
Re:python QT and KDE3? (Score:2)
Re:python QT and KDE3? (Score:2)
www.cetus-links.org - Currently 18163 well-maintai (Score:2, Informative)
And well-maintained, too.
C-C
Java (Score:3, Informative)
Python (Score:4, Informative)
Dive Into Python [diveintopython.org], a free online book for advanced programmers
Python FAQT [faqts.com], user-expandable knowledge base with great questions and answers
Python Library Reference [python.org], ed. by Guido van Rossum and Fred L. Drake, Jr. [need I say more?]
Python Tutorial [python.org], ed. by Guido van Rossum and Fred L. Drake, Jr.
The Whole Python FAQ [python.org]
for java and J2EE (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.theserverside.com -> J2EE news, great level. Also J2EE patterns and book drafts. Great community.
http://www.jguru.com -> great faqs (quite in-depth content) and introductory texts also. Not any news, though
http://java.sun.com -> search for the blueprints, and the javaOne slides each year to follow the state-of-the-art on java technology, resumed. The community sucks, though.
http://c2.com -> not java, but great pattern repository, great community, and take years to read *part* of it.
http://developer.java.sun.com/developer/online (Score:2)
Gets 5 stars from me.
Many good C++ links + a warning or two (Score:5, Informative)
The problem with on-line C++ is that many people who claim to write about it don't know their subject, and consequently write superficially correct code that actually sucks. I'm sorry to name names, but the much-recommended-here CPlusPlus.com [cplusplus.com] is one such site; their "Hello, world!" program at the start of their isn't even correct. I'd give sites like that a miss if you're seriously interested in learning C++.
One good source of information about C++ (and many other programming-related subjects) on-line is the related Usenet newsgroups, particularly the group specifically for learners [lang.learn.c-c] if you're just starting out, or the moderated C++ group [lang.c.modetated] for more advanced subjects.
Many of these groups also have helpful FAQs, available (as usual) via the Internet FAQ Consortium [faqs.org]. Again, for those just starting out, I'd particularly recommend the alt.comp.lang.learn.c-c++ FAQ [snurse-l.org], which has links to helpful on-line resources, free compilers, etc.
There are a few web sites of which anyone in the C++ field should be aware.
There are a few decent on-line references to the standard library:
About the only decent on-line C++ tutorial I know of the electronic version of Bruce Eckel's "Thinking in C++" books. You can find a complete copy of these, and several of his other books, at his books web site [mindview.net]. (He also has books on Java, C#, Python amongst other things, and all of his work I've read has been reasonably good.)
Something wrong with cplusplus.com's example (Score:2)
They use #include <iostream.h> and ignore the std namespace. This is wrong both in theory and in practice.
In theory, they claim to teach ANSI C++, which this never has been.
In practice, on most platforms that have both the old-fashioned <iostream.h> and the standard <iostream> headers, there are subtle differences between the two. There is the obvious, but usually non-fatal, namespace issue. More seriously, many of the <iostream.h> implementations were different (duh -- that's why we have a standard now :-)) and so code using them is likely to suffer from subtle problems if it's used with a different compiler, or even a new version of the same one, or if it's ever converted to use the standard <iostream> header instead.
These are clearly no more than irritations in the trivial example, but the use of the non-standard header could have nasty consequences in real world code. There's just no reason to do it with any modern C++ compiler, and yet here they are illustrating it as "ANSI C++" on page one. :-(
For a C/C++ library reference (Score:2)
Re:www.w3tutorials.com (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I like DevShed... (Score:2)
It wouldn't be at the top of my list for compiled languages or Java. But for web development it is an excellent choice.
Code Editors (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Quick Question (Score:2)
Re:Web Developer Resources (Score:2)