Dr. Dobb's Journal
Hacker ApprovedRanked 4 of 11 magazines by recommenders
Recommended as a nostalgic programming magazine whose articles still capture the era's tech zeitgeist and remain useful.
Recommended as a nostalgic programming magazine whose articles still capture the era's tech zeitgeist and remain useful.
15 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 93%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 14 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fond memories of reading it
“DDJ and Creative Computing were by far my favorite computer magazines that I looked forward to every month.”
Comment from 3 Apr 2026 in “A Few Good Magazines From the 70s and 80s” “Nary a month goes by that I don't bemoan the loss of BYTE and Dr Dobbs Journal.”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “LinkedIn Is Illegally Searching Your Computer” “Oh how I have fond memories of Dr.Dobb's journal.”
Comment from 16 Sep 2026 in “A software thing I built: GPS on a 25MHz 486-SX” - Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Dr. Dobb's Developer Library DVD 6”
Captures the era's zeitgeist
“It's also fun just to look at the article titles to see what the zeitgeist of the era was”
Comment from 30 Jul 2026 in “Dr. Dobb's Journal (articles from 1988 – 2009)” “Before the internet it was a good way to have a picture of what was out there”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Dr. Dobb's Developer Library DVD 6” “Another great magazine of this era was Dr Dobbs”
Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “Archive of Byte magazine, starting with issue #1 in 1975”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Shifted mainstream by the 1980s
“Byte and Dr Drobbs had the odd technical article but gone mostly mainstream by the 80s.”
Comment from 3 Apr 2026 in “A Few Good Magazines From the 70s and 80s”
Other magazines people recommend
The four most recommended other magazines, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Byte magazine | 49 | 4 | 92% | 8 | 40 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Paged Out | 46 | 7 | 87% | 6 | — | Approved |
| The New Yorker | 26 | 10 | 72% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Dr. Dobb's JournalThis page | 14 | 1 | 93% | 4 | — | Approved |
| Delayed Gratification magazine | 11 | 3 | 79% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
13 of the 15 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Oh how I have fond memories of Dr.Dobb's journal.”
“helped me write my first home page”
“I still have stacks of DDJ, C/C++ Users Journal, SysAdmin, and The Perl Journal issues in my library.”
“It's also fun just to look at the article titles to see what the zeitgeist of the era was”
“Another great magazine of this era was Dr Dobbs”
“Before the internet it was a good way to have a picture of what was out there”
“I devoured Dr. Dobb's when I was a teenager!”
“DDJ and Creative Computing were by far my favorite computer magazines that I looked forward to every month.”
“Much of the content was timeless.”
“Byte and Dr Drobbs had the odd technical article but gone mostly mainstream by the 80s.”
“Nary a month goes by that I don't bemoan the loss of BYTE and Dr Dobbs Journal.”
“Good magazines that are missed.”
“Huge debt of gratitude to DDJ.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.