A while ago I stumbled across Joel On Software and for the first time I actually saw a point to blogs. But sadly he has now stopped blogging, and I have read most of his older stuff now.

But it got me wondering if there are any other similar blogs out there. I searched google but couldnt find anything.

Does anyone have any recommendations for good software engineering blogs similar to Joel? I'm not looking for a blog that concentrates on a particular language or is too technical, but instead focuses on the concepts behind software engineering and good design.

I look forward to checking out some of the suggestions!

programming.reddit.com has some good links every now and then; it's worth trawling through once a week or so for the highlights.

If you're searching for blogs on software you will undoubtedly cross paths with codinghorror which is derivative, self referential, and usually inaccurate or trite.

I still read it on occasion because I am a glutton for pain.

I don't know about tech blogs in general, but my all time favourite blog post is this one:
http://moishelettvin.blogspot.com/2006/11/windows-shutdown-crapfest.html

Old new thing.

You could search for DevDisasters although it's less about programming. Joel stopped because he figured there wasn't anything much new to say, it's all been said. It's a shame but I see his point.

If you like Joel, I suggest checking out the books he recommends, such as "Mythical Man Month", "Peopleware", etc.

Actually, he has a List (more focused on management but looks pretty interesting).

And another one here.

Thanks for the suggestions so far!

I guess I am asking a lot for a single blog, so something like reddit might be a good idea (i'll try Digg too), i've never really used either site so might take a bit of work getting what I want. The articles in the link you posted are a little too technical and specific to one topic, but i'll see if I can filter them better.

The Old New Thing looks a little familiar, do you know the history of the guy runnign it? I suspect joel may have linked to it in the past. Ill give it a try, some of the posts are off topic, and those that are there are a bit brief, and not really what I was looking for, but it may prove useful.

I have a mountain of books waiting to be read, but I am always willing to add to the pile! (I really should start reading more!)

Quote: Original post by Ed Welch
I don't know about tech blogs in general, but my all time favourite blog post is this one:
http://moishelettvin.blogspot.com/2006/11/windows-shutdown-crapfest.html

That article is rather scary! I read the original article by Joel just the other week (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/11/21.html), that article was a response to it. I'm glad I dont work at Microsoft! I will have a read through some other articles and see if they provide useful insights into how not to work.

I read TDWTF, I guess codinghorrors is going to be similar? Useful to read, but still not quite what i'm looking for. (Even I dont know what that is yet!)

Thanks again, and if anyone has any more suggestions, feel free to post them!

Quote: Original post by gavco98
The Old New Thing looks a little familiar, do you know the history of the guy runnign it?

Raymond Chen.

CodingHorror.com is nothing like TDWTF. Joel Spolsky's partner in Stack Overflow runs CodingHorror. It's a pretty good blog, similar to Joel's, but it's also got some more personal entries in it about just general tech stuff (like gadgets and what not). If you liked joelonsoftware you'll like CH.

Quote: Original post by ChurchSkiz
CodingHorror.com is nothing like TDWTF. Joel Spolsky's partner in Stack Overflow runs CodingHorror. It's a pretty good blog, similar to Joel's, but it's also got some more personal entries in it about just general tech stuff (like gadgets and what not). If you liked joelonsoftware you'll like CH.

CodingHorror is a pretty popular blog because it was extremely frequently updated before Stack Overflow. Now it is casually updated.

It is not like TDWTF at all, but on the other hand, there are more internal links to his own past blog entries than anything else, he practically invented infinite self referential recursion, but maybe that was Wikipedia. This alone wouldn't be so bad, it's kind of a fun way to link people to other similar articles, but it is incredibly self-indulgant for a fellow who isn't terribly original, or even a little original. He'll read a professionally published article and then post portions of it on his blog and offer pale and ignorant comments on brilliant source material.

His logo was ripped from Code Complete and he talks about servers and hardware much more often than programming. When he does talk about programming it is surface scraping and simplistic, Joel does this as well, but at least he focuses more on the business/social/engineering aspects and does a good job of it.

I guess I'm just not really a fan.