After 38 years of publishing great content for software development, Dr. Dobb’s is turning its final page.
For those of us who have been in the software industry long enough to remember a time before Google put code examples, good and terrible, at your fingertips, Dr. Dobb’s Journal was a source of knowledge like few others. Started even before my time the first edition was published in 1976 and featured articles on Tiny Basic programming. Since that first edition Dr. Dobb’s has covered everything from CP/M, OS/2, Java’s beginnings, Windows, and everything that has intrigued or puzzled software developers for the past 38 years. Article authors have included industry leaders like Martin Fowler, Grady Booch, and Bertrand Meyer to name just a few.
In 1991 Dr. Dobb’s created the “Jolt Awards” based on the over sweetened and caffeinated cola that supposedly fueled many a long night of coding. Some of the past winners have included Bjarne Stroustrup, Alan Cooper, and even Wintellect’s own Charles Petzold.
Time unfortunately moves on and while Dr. Dobb’s shifted from print publication to digital/online many years ago, advertising dollars just aren’t as available as they once were.
This is because in the last 18 months, there has been a marked shift in how vendors value website advertising. They’ve come to realize that website ads tend to be less effective than they once were. Given that I’ve never bought a single item by clicking on an ad on a website, this conclusion seems correct in the small. — Farewell Dr. Dobb’s Post
While there are certainly other outlets for software development insights, including (ahem) this one, it was always comforting to know that Dr. Dobb’s was still out there providing excellent technically edited articles for software engineers.