Dr. Dobb's Journal June 2006
By the time you read this, it should be apparent that something's happening here at Dr. Dobb's. For starters, a photo of me now graces this page. I leave it to you to decide whether this is an improvement, but I will point out that that's a red pencil behind my ear. While red pencils are traditional tools of the trade for editors, the truth of the matter is that I haven't edited with a red pencil in years. Okay, we tried tucking a keyboard behind my ear, but it just didn't work. Tradition and the pencil won out.
That said, there most certainly is a lot happening here at Dr. Dobb's, starting with the obvious—the look-and-feel of the magazine. As you can see, we've redesigned DDJ to make it more readable and to accommodate new features. This means, for instance, that you'll enjoy a much greater use of graphics and photos, my pix notwithstanding.
Among the new features that you'll be discovering in the new Dr. Dobb's Journal are "Developer Diaries" and "Alius Vox." "Developer Diaries" includes profiles of individuals (such as yourself) in the software development arena who have interesting jobs, or who make their job interesting. If you know of someone who falls into this category, let us know. For its part, "Alius Vox" is a guest editorial page. If there's something you'd like to say about the world of software development—and you can do so in 700 words—drop me a note. Of course, we're always on the lookout for first-class technical articles, too.
Recall a month or so ago, I mentioned that Michael Swaine was moving from his long-running "Programming Paradigms" column to other assignments. The first installment of that other assignment rolls out with this month's cover story "Ruby on Rails". In this ongoing feature, Michael will identify important trends in the software development industry and examine why they are important.
Joining Michael this month are two new contributors—well, new to Dr. Dobb's anyway. Moving over from the late Software Development magazine, Rick Wayne is continuing his "New & Noteworthy" page, and Scott Ambler his "Agile Edge" column. In particular, Scott joining DDJ underscores our commitment to topics you used to read more about in Software Development—modeling, architecture, methodologies, management, and more, or as SD was wont to say, "design, build, test, deploy."
But happenings aren't just happening with the magazine. We've also launched Dr. Dobb's Portal, the essential web site for the world of software development. Dr. Dobb's Portal (www.ddj.com) covers all the core topics—and then some—critical to software development today and tomorrow. This includes languages, environments, operating systems, tools, processors, processes, and more. The site also includes regular podcasts, Dr. Dobb's TV, departmental blogs, and the like. And as with the magazine, we're actively looking for articles in all of these areas. If you have an article in mind, contact us at editors@ddj.com.
If that isn't enough, I'd also like to introduce Dr. Dobb's Architecture & Design World 2006 (www.sdexpo.com), a conference devoted to, well, software architecture and design. Taking place in Chicago from July 17-20, the conference offers more than 70 classes, tutorials, and roundtables, whose participants include Scott Ambler, Robert C. Martin, Larry Constantine, Granville Miller, Stephen Mellor, and others. Note that this is just the first of several conferences and events we'll debut this year.
Okay, those are the changes. What won't be changing, however, is Dr. Dobb's Journal's commitment to delivering the most essential information you need to deliver world-class software worldwide. Whether it is unraveling a fundamental algorithm, programming around a thorny C++ compiler bug, finding out the tricks to becoming a better project manager, or designing mission-critical applications, Dr. Dobb's will continue to be the last word in software development.
Jonathan Erickson
Editor-in-Chief
jerickson@ddj.com