Web Development Websites

In this article I take a brief look at some of my favourite web development related sites. Visiting these sites on a frequent basis helps to broaden one's knowledge of development techniques and technologies, and is also good way to relax and in some cases have a chuckle!

Sitepoint.com

Sitepoint is a publisher of web design, business and development books. I usually visit Sitepoint to lurk in the forums, which benefit from a lively and knowledgeable community. The forum home page lists some featured discussions, which is a useful way to jump to the most interesting threads. Sitepoint also has a good articles section, though this is not updated as frequently as some other sites. The most widely covered programming languages on Sitepoint are PHP and JavaScript. Also covered are areas of interest to designers such as HTML and CSS. Sample chapters of the Sitepoint books are available to download.

Artima.com

Artima Developer is host to in-depth technical articles written by beacons of the software world, such as Bjarne Stroustrup (creator of C++) and Bruce Eckel (author of Thinking in Java and other books). New articles are added frequently, so it's a good site to visit daily. Recently, Artima has provided excellent coverage of the highlights of the JavaOne convention. The main programming languages and platforms covered are Java, .net, Python, Ruby and C++. Artima lets you download sample chapters from selected books from a variety of publishers including O'Reilly, Addison-Wesley and Prentice Hall.

WorseThanFailure.com

Worse Than Failure contains humourous articles and accounts about terribly written code and other curiosities of the IT world, such as bizarre job interviews and highly paid consultants who do almost no work of any value. The articles are written in an informal style and reading them is a great way to feel better about your own programming abilities!