Favourite magazines?
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Daniel Kopitchinski, the winner of our tutorial drive, was just wondering which magazines to grab as his prize. I was thinking of mags like Dr Dobbs or C++ Users Journal, but I figured it was easier just to ask you guys what your favourite magazines are. cheers, Chris Maunde
Chris, you know it's funny. I was previously a voracious consumer of magazines, but in the last 18 months I'd say my thirst for absorbing information in that format has really fallen off. FWIW, I still find that MSDN magazine (previously MSJ) is the best source of whitewashed Microsoft propaganda :), which is still very important for us all to know, and it gives excellent treatment to MS technologies that are in the pipe. Hail to Don, Matt and George who keep me reading! The slide-rule guy in me still loves to pick up a copy of C++ User's Journal (CUJ to we insiders), and Dr. Dobb's (DDJ) although Dobb's is going *way* Java and Linux (which I find interesting to read, but not valuable for day-to-day work. I personally am much more interested reading web based material in places like this, as you get the unwashed stuff from the authors, and an often heated debate follows in the comments below. I think web stuff can be more dynamic, and can give treatment to very minor topics that magazines would never find page space for.
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Daniel Kopitchinski, the winner of our tutorial drive, was just wondering which magazines to grab as his prize. I was thinking of mags like Dr Dobbs or C++ Users Journal, but I figured it was easier just to ask you guys what your favourite magazines are. cheers, Chris Maunde
It's a funny thing, but a year ago I would have said MSJ, but now the MSDN ( what was MSJ merged with some other mag ) is IMHO mostly a complete waste of time, and a reflection of Microsoft's desire to kill C++ development altogether in favour of languages they create and control, freeing them from criticism over standards and the need to support languages that run on other platforms. C# is IMHO an attempt to kill C++ the way they killed Java. While Paul DeLascia is always a good read, his little column is not worth the price of entry. Overall I regret that I still have an active subscription. Dr. Dobbs for me covers too many other languages to be of use to me, programming professionally in C++ only. I just don't get bang for buck, except in rare circumstances like the recent 'Graphics' issue, which was excellent. For this reason I would not subscribe, but buy on an issue by issue basis. WDJ/CUJ are both useful reads, but unfortunately in my experience their subscriptions are handled by a pack of clowns who are bound to the the first against the wall when the revolution comes. After asking to subscribe at the start of this year, spending MONTHS telling them that for some reason the bills addressed to something that vaguely resembled my street and suburb, but had a country of Austria were arriving to me, but no mags where, they cancelled my subscription. I did not receive a single issue. Then I contacted the editor, who promised me some free issues and T-Shirts with my new subscription. As we speak the August issue of WDJ is on the newsstands and I am yet to receive it ( my first ) although the bill came two weeks ago. I got a CUJ last week, but the free stuff they promised me has not been sent. Overall, I'd suggest that the best mag to subscribe to is VCDJ, although they are very COM focused and appear to be becoming less in depth due to pressure to provide info suitable for 'newbies' to C++. WDJ/CUJ are better, but impossible to subscribe to, MSDN has gone to the dogs and Dr. Dobbs simply doesn't have the C++ coverage to justify getting every issue. If anyone has managed to get a WDJ/CUJ subscription, I'd be interested. I've found it an almost Herculean task. Christia
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Daniel Kopitchinski, the winner of our tutorial drive, was just wondering which magazines to grab as his prize. I was thinking of mags like Dr Dobbs or C++ Users Journal, but I figured it was easier just to ask you guys what your favourite magazines are. cheers, Chris Maunde
This in an interesting thread. I read DDJ for a couple of years now and find it still intersting as sort of "looking over the fence". Just to get an idea and keep informed of other areas. For myself as "Windows-minded" (or better "Windows-forced") developer I read a lot of online resources for my daily work because I find them much more actual and more dynamic then printed medias. They have the chance to go more in the depth with their forums. When trying to get an idea of other areas this depth on the other side is an absolute showkiller. Tom
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Daniel Kopitchinski, the winner of our tutorial drive, was just wondering which magazines to grab as his prize. I was thinking of mags like Dr Dobbs or C++ Users Journal, but I figured it was easier just to ask you guys what your favourite magazines are. cheers, Chris Maunde
I have been reading the Visual C++ Developer's journal which IS NOT written by Microsoft, and it's a pretty good publication. They have had a few columns about C#, but for the most part they cover everything from templates in C++ to COM/ATL development. For me, this magazine covers the things I need to know. HOWEVER, the magazine is very thin, and it is a little expensive. In light of this, it's still a pretty good read
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It's a funny thing, but a year ago I would have said MSJ, but now the MSDN ( what was MSJ merged with some other mag ) is IMHO mostly a complete waste of time, and a reflection of Microsoft's desire to kill C++ development altogether in favour of languages they create and control, freeing them from criticism over standards and the need to support languages that run on other platforms. C# is IMHO an attempt to kill C++ the way they killed Java. While Paul DeLascia is always a good read, his little column is not worth the price of entry. Overall I regret that I still have an active subscription. Dr. Dobbs for me covers too many other languages to be of use to me, programming professionally in C++ only. I just don't get bang for buck, except in rare circumstances like the recent 'Graphics' issue, which was excellent. For this reason I would not subscribe, but buy on an issue by issue basis. WDJ/CUJ are both useful reads, but unfortunately in my experience their subscriptions are handled by a pack of clowns who are bound to the the first against the wall when the revolution comes. After asking to subscribe at the start of this year, spending MONTHS telling them that for some reason the bills addressed to something that vaguely resembled my street and suburb, but had a country of Austria were arriving to me, but no mags where, they cancelled my subscription. I did not receive a single issue. Then I contacted the editor, who promised me some free issues and T-Shirts with my new subscription. As we speak the August issue of WDJ is on the newsstands and I am yet to receive it ( my first ) although the bill came two weeks ago. I got a CUJ last week, but the free stuff they promised me has not been sent. Overall, I'd suggest that the best mag to subscribe to is VCDJ, although they are very COM focused and appear to be becoming less in depth due to pressure to provide info suitable for 'newbies' to C++. WDJ/CUJ are better, but impossible to subscribe to, MSDN has gone to the dogs and Dr. Dobbs simply doesn't have the C++ coverage to justify getting every issue. If anyone has managed to get a WDJ/CUJ subscription, I'd be interested. I've found it an almost Herculean task. Christia
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Daniel Kopitchinski, the winner of our tutorial drive, was just wondering which magazines to grab as his prize. I was thinking of mags like Dr Dobbs or C++ Users Journal, but I figured it was easier just to ask you guys what your favourite magazines are. cheers, Chris Maunde
I'm a subscriber of DDJ, MSDN, CUJ and WDJ. I like them all, which is unfortunate. It would be *extremely* nice to have a single mag that covered the territory I'm interested in. Comments: * MSDN was much better when is was MSJ. * CUJ and WDJ have had the occasional invaluable nugget or reference which was of great benefit. I had no problems getting a subscription, as others have reported here and elsewhere. * DDJ is nice for the variety. I enjoy the discussion of various languages and platforms because it helps me think about problems from different points of view. Lately, I have been doing quite a bit of Java programming and have come to the following conclusions: * Java 2 is finally "grown up" enough to do large truly useful things. * As a result of the above, I find myself looking for a mag & web site that is as useful as the above mags and web sites such as this. One thing Microsoft has done quite well is provide good tools and documentation. Java will never reach the same status as C/C++ unless/until resources for it reach the same magnitude as is currently available for other languages. Again, where are the resources? The mags? The web sites? The documentation? The samples? Anyone
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It's a funny thing, but a year ago I would have said MSJ, but now the MSDN ( what was MSJ merged with some other mag ) is IMHO mostly a complete waste of time, and a reflection of Microsoft's desire to kill C++ development altogether in favour of languages they create and control, freeing them from criticism over standards and the need to support languages that run on other platforms. C# is IMHO an attempt to kill C++ the way they killed Java. While Paul DeLascia is always a good read, his little column is not worth the price of entry. Overall I regret that I still have an active subscription. Dr. Dobbs for me covers too many other languages to be of use to me, programming professionally in C++ only. I just don't get bang for buck, except in rare circumstances like the recent 'Graphics' issue, which was excellent. For this reason I would not subscribe, but buy on an issue by issue basis. WDJ/CUJ are both useful reads, but unfortunately in my experience their subscriptions are handled by a pack of clowns who are bound to the the first against the wall when the revolution comes. After asking to subscribe at the start of this year, spending MONTHS telling them that for some reason the bills addressed to something that vaguely resembled my street and suburb, but had a country of Austria were arriving to me, but no mags where, they cancelled my subscription. I did not receive a single issue. Then I contacted the editor, who promised me some free issues and T-Shirts with my new subscription. As we speak the August issue of WDJ is on the newsstands and I am yet to receive it ( my first ) although the bill came two weeks ago. I got a CUJ last week, but the free stuff they promised me has not been sent. Overall, I'd suggest that the best mag to subscribe to is VCDJ, although they are very COM focused and appear to be becoming less in depth due to pressure to provide info suitable for 'newbies' to C++. WDJ/CUJ are better, but impossible to subscribe to, MSDN has gone to the dogs and Dr. Dobbs simply doesn't have the C++ coverage to justify getting every issue. If anyone has managed to get a WDJ/CUJ subscription, I'd be interested. I've found it an almost Herculean task. Christia
Thank you Christian. All this time I thought CUJ (and WDJ) had something against me personally. I can't recount how often and how many different ways I've tried to subscribe to these magazines. I've phoned, e-mailed, and even faxed all my info with payment and I've received nothing. Not even a bill, at least they tried to get your money! Believe me I'm not blowing this out of proportion. I can't get these folks to acknowledge me. Maybe it's my ranting :) Anyway after a year I gave up and just pick it if one of the 5 copies in the city aren't already sold. I reckon they have some serious subscription handling problems which need to be fixed but after all this time surely they know they have a problem
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Thank you Christian. All this time I thought CUJ (and WDJ) had something against me personally. I can't recount how often and how many different ways I've tried to subscribe to these magazines. I've phoned, e-mailed, and even faxed all my info with payment and I've received nothing. Not even a bill, at least they tried to get your money! Believe me I'm not blowing this out of proportion. I can't get these folks to acknowledge me. Maybe it's my ranting :) Anyway after a year I gave up and just pick it if one of the 5 copies in the city aren't already sold. I reckon they have some serious subscription handling problems which need to be fixed but after all this time surely they know they have a problem
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It's a funny thing, but a year ago I would have said MSJ, but now the MSDN ( what was MSJ merged with some other mag ) is IMHO mostly a complete waste of time, and a reflection of Microsoft's desire to kill C++ development altogether in favour of languages they create and control, freeing them from criticism over standards and the need to support languages that run on other platforms. C# is IMHO an attempt to kill C++ the way they killed Java. While Paul DeLascia is always a good read, his little column is not worth the price of entry. Overall I regret that I still have an active subscription. Dr. Dobbs for me covers too many other languages to be of use to me, programming professionally in C++ only. I just don't get bang for buck, except in rare circumstances like the recent 'Graphics' issue, which was excellent. For this reason I would not subscribe, but buy on an issue by issue basis. WDJ/CUJ are both useful reads, but unfortunately in my experience their subscriptions are handled by a pack of clowns who are bound to the the first against the wall when the revolution comes. After asking to subscribe at the start of this year, spending MONTHS telling them that for some reason the bills addressed to something that vaguely resembled my street and suburb, but had a country of Austria were arriving to me, but no mags where, they cancelled my subscription. I did not receive a single issue. Then I contacted the editor, who promised me some free issues and T-Shirts with my new subscription. As we speak the August issue of WDJ is on the newsstands and I am yet to receive it ( my first ) although the bill came two weeks ago. I got a CUJ last week, but the free stuff they promised me has not been sent. Overall, I'd suggest that the best mag to subscribe to is VCDJ, although they are very COM focused and appear to be becoming less in depth due to pressure to provide info suitable for 'newbies' to C++. WDJ/CUJ are better, but impossible to subscribe to, MSDN has gone to the dogs and Dr. Dobbs simply doesn't have the C++ coverage to justify getting every issue. If anyone has managed to get a WDJ/CUJ subscription, I'd be interested. I've found it an almost Herculean task. Christia
Yes, been getting WDJ for years, although recenmtly switched to getting it from a UK distributor so that I avoided the torrent of 'renew now' flyers that seem to start on month 6, when really they should start on month 11, 1 month before I'm due to have the subscription expire. MSDN was better without MIND content, when it was just MSJ. MSDN is worth it for Matt Pietrek, John Robbins, Jeff Richter and Paul DiLascia. Dr Dobbs is good, if only to read Swaine. Linux Journal is good too, but not much use if you are into windows. Stephen
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I'm a subscriber of DDJ, MSDN, CUJ and WDJ. I like them all, which is unfortunate. It would be *extremely* nice to have a single mag that covered the territory I'm interested in. Comments: * MSDN was much better when is was MSJ. * CUJ and WDJ have had the occasional invaluable nugget or reference which was of great benefit. I had no problems getting a subscription, as others have reported here and elsewhere. * DDJ is nice for the variety. I enjoy the discussion of various languages and platforms because it helps me think about problems from different points of view. Lately, I have been doing quite a bit of Java programming and have come to the following conclusions: * Java 2 is finally "grown up" enough to do large truly useful things. * As a result of the above, I find myself looking for a mag & web site that is as useful as the above mags and web sites such as this. One thing Microsoft has done quite well is provide good tools and documentation. Java will never reach the same status as C/C++ unless/until resources for it reach the same magnitude as is currently available for other languages. Again, where are the resources? The mags? The web sites? The documentation? The samples? Anyone
Have you taken a look at JAVA SOLUTIONS? This is a publication specifically written for the advanced C/C++ developer who is now learning Java to stay competitive. It comes out 6 times a year, polybagged with the C/C++ Users Journal. So, the readers of CUJ are the ones getting their hands on this info. It's written at the same level of editorial as CUJ, it's just in Java! And there's no watered down info or Java-hype, just working code. Keep an eye out for it. It comes polybagged with C/C++ Users Journal. All the best,
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Have you taken a look at JAVA SOLUTIONS? This is a publication specifically written for the advanced C/C++ developer who is now learning Java to stay competitive. It comes out 6 times a year, polybagged with the C/C++ Users Journal. So, the readers of CUJ are the ones getting their hands on this info. It's written at the same level of editorial as CUJ, it's just in Java! And there's no watered down info or Java-hype, just working code. Keep an eye out for it. It comes polybagged with C/C++ Users Journal. All the best,
Oh, and the JAVA SOLUTIONS site is at www.cuj.com/jav