While there’s a glutton of good, not so good and downright horrible software development blogs out there, there are a handful of great ones.
The blogs we’ve picked are all International sites, and try as we did even Google wasn’t able to help us find any local South African blogs. Whether that’s because they’re hidden under obscure names and pseudonyms or there really just aren’t any that have gained traction and followers, we’re none the wiser.
What we do know is blogs are a valuable resource for keeping up with the latest innovations, communicating with fellow developers and advancing your skills and knowledge.
So if you’re new to the game, been doing it a few years or are a professional developer striving to further improve your skills, there’s definitely a blog on this list that will suit your needs.
- SIXREVISIONS – sixrevisions.com
SixRevisions isn’t a classical web development blog anymore, its more a major site for developers, web engineers and planners. It offers hands-on instructional exercises, news and guidance for anybody interested in site and web application advancement.
There’s some extraordinary editorial on all-things HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and the site offers amazing direction on UX and UI outline.
Started in 2008 by expert web engineer/planner Jacob Gube, SixRevisions has a huge fan base with incalculable posts that offer profound bits of knowledge into web outlining and advancement. If web advancement intrigues you, don’t miss this one!
- CODING HORROR – blog.codinghorror.com
Started in 2004, Jeff Atwood continues to entertain his readers with brilliant posts that are full of humour. Over the years he’s grown both as a developer and writer, and his current posts are easy to read and understand; something you would enjoy reading after a hard day’s work, which is quite a rare thing in software development. You’ll also get loads of great tips and resources through Jeff sharing his experiences.
Jeff is also a co-founder of Stack Exchange Network of Q&A sites, formerly Stack Overflow, which he created together with Joel Spolsky.
3. BRENDAN EICH – https://brendaneich.com
Who better to learn JavaScript from than the inventor of JS himself? Brendan’s blog hasn’t been updated in a while, but his archives have posts dating back to 2004. It’s pretty interesting to read about the evolution of JS and web development! And he has indicated that he is about to getting writing again soon!
Eich started his career at Silicon Graphics working for seven years on operating system and network code. He then worked for three years at MicroUnity Systems Engineering writing microkernel and DSP code, and doing the very first MIPS R4000port of GCC.
4. GEEKS FOR GEEKS – geeksforgeeks.org
This is an online journal for programming software engineers who want to crack interviews at huge tech organisations. The primary goal behind this site is to give answers to programming/algorithmic inquiries that are normally asked in meetings. It’s a client submitted blog, where amateur developers post their own meeting encounters.
5. A LIST APART – https://alistapart.com/blog
This started out as a mailing list back in 1997. Today it’s a successful blog for software developers.
It was founded by L. Jeffrey Zeldman and features contributing writers like Senongo Akpem, Rachel Andrew, Cennydd Bowles, Anthony Colangelo, Lyza Danger Gardner, Debra Gelman, Matt Griffin, and many more.
This is a perfect destination for those who are looking for a place to broaden their knowledge of software development or are just looking around for some cool tips and tricks. The blog covers all kinds of topics on the design, development and meaning of web content, but more specifically on web standards and best practices.
6. JOEL ON SOFTWARE – www.joelonsoftware.com
Jeff Atwood’s ex-partner Joel started blogging back in 2000. He has been into programming for almost 40 years now, so, yes, he has a lot to share about software development. He was one of the first employees at Microsoft and worked hard to create what you know now as OLE Automation or IDispatch.
Joel’s posts are focused on the business and management of software. He is currently the CEO of Stack Exchange. He has written 4 books, including one on user interface design, which is also available on the blog. Joel also runs a software company, Fog Creek Software.
7. DAVID WALSH – davidwalsh.name
If you’re interested in the field of programming improvement, David Walsh is sure to come up. Here you’ll discover extraordinary articles about CSS, jQuery, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL and a great deal more. His posts are often trying to solve a common problem or figure out the best solution for a certain function. Try looking at his web advancement blog.
David Walsh is Mozilla’s senior web engineer, and the centre designer for the MooTools Javascript Framework. David’s online journal mirrors his aptitudes in HTML/5, JS and CSS, and offers a huge amount of insight and knowledge into front-end advances. Significantly more evident is his obsession for open source commitment and experimentation improvement, making his online journal a standout among the most genuine, attracting a large fanbase and following.
That takes you through our Top 9 blogs. We hope you found something that appeals to you. If there any other blogs you think are worth exploring, please share, especially if they’re South African. We’re sure there’s got to be some great homespun blogs worth following.