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Programming Software Technology

Top 5 Software Development Magazines? 89

Posted by Cliff from the anyone-remember-_Byte_? dept.
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?"
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Top 5 Software Development Magazines? More

Top 5 Software Development Magazines?

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  • Embedded (Score:5, Informative)

    by Mark of THE CITY ( 97325 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2005 @06:51PM (#13717616) Journal
    Embedded Systems Design [embedded.com] 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.
    • dual-hatted EEs
      Making my life doing Software Integration hell, let me tell you. They might be "Electrical Engineers", but they sure as hell aren't "Software Engineers", and whatever discipline they are taught as EE's appears not to involve any Engineering Process whatsoever (a bit rich coming from CompSci graduate, but there you go).

  • depends on your field (Score:4, Informative)

    by crimethinker ( 721591 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2005 @06:52PM (#13717619)
    For example, I read Embedded Systems Programmimg, Circuit Cellar, EETimes, and EDN. Someone else might point out Software Development magazine, but I find it's less applicable to my particular specialty. Really, it will depend on what sort of work you do within this very large field we call Computer Science.

    -paul

    • I used to love reading Steve Ciarcia's "Circuit Cellar" [circuitcellar.com]. I first started reading his article in the print edition of "Byte magazine" [byte.com] before he started his own magazine. Along the same lines I also liked to read Jerry Pournelle's [jerrypournelle.com] "Chaos Manor" in the same magazine.

      Falcon

    • Re:depends on your field (Score:3, Informative)

      by jmccay ( 70985 )
      I have never really been impressed with Software Development magazine. They seem to have stuff that I thought seems old--at least if you followed various internet sources. Plus they seem a little more fluff than stuff. Of course, it didn't help that nobody carried the magazine for a while. I never felt it was worth subscribing to annually. I currently subscribe to Dr. Dobbs (which I think should be a must for all software developers) and C++ Users Journal. I think it is worth the money to buy the CD c

  • Get a wide selection... (Score:4, Informative)

    by stienman ( 51024 ) <adavis@@@ubasics...com> on Tuesday October 04, 2005 @06:55PM (#13717640) Homepage Journal

    For just programming in general, and embedded systems specifically, go for Embedded Systems Programming [embedded.com]. 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. [embedded.com])

    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

  • DDJ and CUJ (Score:3)

    by The boojum ( 70419 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2005 @06:59PM (#13717691)
    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.

  • Wrong question (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jhoger ( 519683 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2005 @07:10PM (#13717784) Homepage
    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.
    • In response to this, I would like to extend this to say try writing a large project. I find many of my best lessons were learned when trying to do something useful that required lots of code. Design Patterns are inevitable and *that*, imho, is where the best programming lessons are learned. Not only implementing them, but finding a particular design doesn't accomodate a certain change well and then having to rethink the design and implement the changes without breaking too much in the process.

    • Re:Wrong question (Score:3, Insightful)

      by barzok ( 26681 )
      The books are great - I've been reading some of the same books mentioned in this discussion. But without applying the things you learn from them, they're almost useless.

      Read the books, write lots of code. They go hand in hand.

    • Re:Wrong question (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Marillion ( 33728 )
      Writing lots of code is a drasticly slower improvement process than reading code. Not books, but code. There's lots of code out there. Most of it is bad. Bad code is just as educational as good code. Sometimes with code, like with people, it isn't always obvious which is which.

      Another thing to do is to get involved in a user's group. Here in Cincinnati there is an XP users group [yahoo.com]. In this case, XP is eXtreme Programing, not a version of Windows. It started out as a lab to try out XP in a "safe" env

  • "The 68 Micro Journal", "Computer Language", "The C User's Journal", "The Journal of Pascal, Ada, and Modula-2", and "Micro Cornucopia".

    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.)

  • MSDN & Dr Dobbs (Score:4, Informative)

    by omibus ( 116064 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2005 @07:27PM (#13717924) Homepage Journal
    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
    • I don't know what Dobbs is like nowadays but 5+ years ago it was always about a year out of date. e.g. Wavelets only made it into Dobbs well over a year after they were something of significant interest.

  • I like... (Score:3, Informative)

    by magores ( 208594 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2005 @07:30PM (#13717936) Journal
    Dr Dobbs

    You can find lots of free magazines related to many specialties here: http://www.TradePub.com/ [tradepub.com]

  • What I get (Score:3, Informative)

    by Ratbert42 ( 452340 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2005 @07:45PM (#13718058)
    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.
  • Your best use of magazine-reading time is not to read magazines. Instead, get on the mailing list of a Free Software project where you would actually want to use the result if it were further along. (Please, no IRC clients!) Then, start making little improvements and sending in patches. Develop a thick skin and a willingness to rewrite; your work will suck for a long time, but recoding under expert direction is more educational than coding without.

    After you get a feeling for the project (or a second p

    • Develop a thick skin and a willingness to rewrite; your work will suck for a long time, but recoding under expert direction is more educational than coding without.

      Of course learning under the direction of a moron might scar your development for life, so don't pick your project randomly.

  • ACM, IEEE (Score:4, Interesting)

    by lotussuper7 ( 134496 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2005 @08:17PM (#13718306) Homepage
    Have you considered publications put out by folks like the ACM [acm.org] or IEEE [ieee.org]?

    When I was an active programmer, doing OS development and such, I used to read publications from both.

    IEEE has many journals [ieee.org], conference proceedings [ieee.org], and standards [ieee.org].

    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.
  • 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.)

  • CLiki, ll-discuss, Bugtraq, Practical Common Lisp (Score:5, Informative)

    by RAMMS+EIN ( 578166 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2005 @08:42PM (#13718496) Homepage Journal
    While not magazines, I've found these resources to be useful in becoming a better programmer:

    CLiki [cliki.net], a programming language blog. Contains lots of stuff on programming languages and paradigms, including debates on merits and disadvantages.

    ll-discuss [mit.edu], 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 [securityfocus.com], a (the?) security list. This will teach you what things to avoid; at least, the 3 most common errors.

    Practical Common Lisp [gigamonkeys.com], 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 [htdp.org], 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.
    • 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
      • 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 HTD
    • If you're hardcore into leading-edge language stuff (and based on the functional programming references I figure you might be), Lambda the Ultimate [lambda-the-ultimate.org]'ll give you a run for your money.

  • Online top 6 (Score:3, Informative)

    by kupci ( 642531 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2005 @08:49PM (#13718546)
    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 [theserverside.com], JavaLobby [javalobby.org], IBM Systems Journal [ibm.com], Software Development [sdmagazine.com], Artima Developer [artima.com], JavaWorld [javaworld.com], and DeveloperWorks [ibm.com] are a few of the excellent ones I regularly read.
    • The IBM Systems Journal is a hard copy publication and can be purchased for $135 a year, currently. I also used to read this, and had my own subscription, back before the web really existed.

      Look here [ibm.com].

      Also, IBM has a Journal of Research and Development [ibm.com] which can be yours for the paultry sum of $299 a year.

      Both were sometimes boring, but at other times had many really great papers in them.

  • Free Software Magazine (Score:3, Informative)

    by D.A. Zollinger ( 549301 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2005 @09:07PM (#13718659) Homepage Journal
    I became a fan of Free Software Magazine [freesoftwaremagazine.com] 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*

  • zerg (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Lord Omlette ( 124579 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2005 @10:27PM (#13719098) Homepage
    I like Dr. Dobbs Journal [ddj.com], C/C++ Users Journal [cuj.com], Communications of the ACM [acm.org] and IEEE CGA [computer.org].

    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. :p

    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 [accu.org] for it's C-Vu journal, I dunno.

    I read 2600 for the hell of it.

    Your mileage will vary.
  • But I like MIT Technology Review.
    It's frequently got stuff in there that gets me thinking about new ideas.

  • IEEE Software (Score:3, Informative)

    by babble123 ( 863258 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2005 @10:44PM (#13719174)
    IEEE Software [computer.org] 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/ [pcplus.co.uk]

  • blogs (Score:3, Informative)

    by bokmann ( 323771 ) on Tuesday October 04, 2005 @10:52PM (#13719209) Homepage
    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.

  • 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 wri

  • ACCU in the UK (Score:3, Informative)

    by PhilHibbs ( 4537 ) <snarks@gmail.com> on Wednesday October 05, 2005 @04:58AM (#13720429) Journal
    The ACCU [accu.org], 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.

  • 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
  • Magazine are for the weak, get CiteSeer [psu.edu], and a library subscription to a University library.

  • game developer magazine (Score:3, Informative)

    by dmh20002 ( 637819 ) on Wednesday October 05, 2005 @11:29AM (#13722484)
    Of any non-academic magazines, Game Developer Magazine [gdmag.com] 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.
  • If you'll be writing for the MS platform, MSDN magazine is essential.
  • Linux Journal and Linux Magazine.

  • 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 l

  • 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
    • Compute! rocked. Real working code fully printed in the magazine. Oh, God I remember typing lines of DATA statements in for all that assembler...

      Its even more fun to write Assembler on paper and covert it to the numeric equivalents for your DATA statements, wooot!
      • There are days when I would still gladly take Speedscript (with spellchecker and print preview) over MS Word!

        I remember when they added the checksum at the end of the each line of machine code. The outrage we felt at the kids who had it so easy then! Why, in my day, we didn't have fancy checksums and we LIKED it!
  • You might also want to consider some audio magazines (ie podcasts). ITconverstions [itconversations.com]is a good place to start.
    • Do you (or anyone else) have recommendations for other podcasts on the topic of development? I haven't really been able to find many high quality tech podcasts. The content on ITconversations is often very good though. But that is from professional speakers with thought through content. Not some random Joe in his garage.
      • Try techpodcasts.com. They have some programming related stuff, but I haven't had time to check into it so I'm not sure of the quailty.
      • I'm a bit biased because I'm directly involved in it, but http://webdevradio.com/ [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://poly [polymorphicpodcast.com]
  • 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'd agree that you want to do some reading outside programming but related to the industry you're working in. Outside of technical knowledge, you can advance your career knowing two more things -
      *By better understanding your industry and its current climate, you can provide technical solutions that better meet your employer's needs. If you're a contractor, your clients will appreciate it if you understand some basics about their industry.
      *By knowing about other players in your field, you can better identi
  • It's quite a bit cheaper if you're a member, but I love IEEE Software magazine [computer.org].

    Milalwi

  • I spend atleast one lunch break a week answering questions in the programming forum [experts-exchange.com] or some subforum at experts-exchange [experts-exchange.com].

    To keep a premium account with them for free, you need to get atleast 3000 expert points a month ... 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.

    They have forums for abunchof languages ... depending on the
  • 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 )
  • 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 b
  • 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 th

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