# Dr. Dobb's Journal

14 Hacker News commenters recommended Dr. Dobb's Journal and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a nostalgic programming magazine whose articles still capture the era's tech zeitgeist and remain useful.

## Why people recommend it

- Fond memories of reading it (4 comments): "DDJ and Creative Computing were by far my favorite computer magazines that I looked forward to every month." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47624509)) "Nary a month goes by that I don't bemoan the loss of BYTE and Dr Dobbs Journal." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47615778)) "Oh how I have fond memories of Dr.Dobb's journal." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49731965))
- Captures the era's zeitgeist (3 comments): "It's also fun just to look at the article titles to see what the zeitgeist of the era was" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49105208)) "Before the internet it was a good way to have a picture of what was out there" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47710512)) "Another great magazine of this era was Dr Dobbs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47824107))

## What people warn about

- Shifted mainstream by the 1980s (1 comments): "Byte and Dr Drobbs had the odd technical article but gone mostly mainstream by the 80s." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47623480))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Byte magazine](https://hackerapproved.com/p/byte-magazine.md): 49 recommend
- [Paged Out](https://hackerapproved.com/p/paged-out-issue-sharp-8.md): 46 recommend
- [The New Yorker](https://hackerapproved.com/p/new-yorker.md): 26 recommend
- [Delayed Gratification magazine](https://hackerapproved.com/p/delayed-gratification-magazine.md): 11 recommend
- [Tmp.0ut Volume 5](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tmp-0ut-volume-5.md): 9 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Dr. Dobb's Journal", https://hackerapproved.com/p/dr-dobb-s-journal/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).