Favorite programmer website?

57 points by schmudde

I recently stumbled across John Walker's awesome old website. It's such a gem of personality and interests: https://www.fourmilab.ch/.

What's your favorite website made by a programmer that isn't just a blog?

xilef

lobste.rs

xilef

Also https://eli.thegreenplace.net/ has some good work on it.

slot

https://okmij.org/ftp/

Maybe it's a bit reductive to call Oleg a "programmer", but I think it fits the theme. Otherwise also http://tom7.org/ of course

schmudde

Love the random digressions into the good old days mixed in with hardcore theory. https://okmij.org/ftp/Babel/

LesleyLai

"Isn't just a blog" immediately excluded multiple of my top options 😅. I will put this here: https://samwho.dev/

zetashift

Same here, including this pearl: https://ciechanow.ski/

Edit: I wouldn't even categorize these links as "just a blog".
- schmudde
  
  Yes! The work by Bartosz Ciechanowski is pretty incredible.
- denz
  
  Came here to post that too!
- matheusmoreira
  
  I came here to post this! Love that website.
ashwinsundar

Hard to pick one

https://www.redblobgames.com/

https://acko.net/

https://gwern.net/

https://cluesbysam.com/
- jrandomhacker
  
  Amit's article on hex grids alone has made its influence on countless game devs.
- alurm
  
  Clues by Sam is very cool!
  - wink
    
    It is, but these kind of puzzles are.. decades? old, so I don't see the connection to programming at all. (Except using logic)
- cpurdy
  
  Surprised no one mentioned this one: https://wiki.c2.com/
  - zem
    
    my first thought too. what a fantastic collection of random thoughts on programming.
- gerikson
  
  John Walker, RIP (he died a year ago)
  
  Seemingly no-one is actively updating his site anymore. Hopefully it stays up for a long time (the cert is by Let's Encrypt, so that's a good sign.)
  
  Check your digital wills, people! Ensure the stuff you care about is documented enough for your survivors to keep running it.
  - oceanhaiyang
    
    add a link
    
    gerikson
    
    I'm referencing the top-level text by submitter. fourmilab.ch was created by John Walker.
    
    oceanhaiyang
    
    ah sorry, mistook that for two different things.
    
    Garbi
    
    I loved that he put lisp in autocad.
  - emmahyde
    
    I have two highly curated picks for you: https://www.cameronsworld.net/ https://rubyreferences.github.io/rubychanges/evolution.html
    
    Relax
    
    what
  - WilhelmVonWeiner
    
    Maybe the best programming blog OAT https://prog21.dadgum.com/
  - mccd
    
    I love exploring https://wiki.xxiivv.com and https://dercuano.github.io/.
    
    Edit: another favorite: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/
    
    schmudde
    
    Solar punk and solar punk-adjacent is maybe the most interesting thing happening in tech. And Love how XXIIVV lives the philosophy.
  - Internet_Janitor
    
    Inigo Quilez has a fantastic array of articles and reference documentation on computer graphics techniques, especially SDF shaders.
    
    I also love Ken Perlin's website, but sadly the Java Applets will not be usable on most browsers today.
  - sven
    
    That's… impossible to answer. But spencer.place is definitely up there, humming with fascinating ideas, toys, and experiments. I collect personal websites that focus on their owner's creative output over at are.na. Lots of programmers & hackers in there (plus some artists and other folks, too).
  - nutmeg
    
    https://regexr.com/
  - metasim
    
    cheats.rs
  - Garbi
    
    I used to visit http://thedailywtf.com daily.
  - carlana
    
    https://smallandnearlysilent.com is fun.
  - sugaryboa
    
    lib.ru
    
    calpaterson
    
    Could you explain what this one is for us?
  - reidrac
    
    All the obvious ones are taken already so let me go a bit back in time: http://acme.com/
    
    When I first connected to the Internet, circa 1998, Jef Poskanzer's page was full of treasures. I played a lot with his CGIs, like http://acme.com/licensemaker/ (not sure if it was already online tho), and that contributed to how magic the Internet was for me!
    
    Also, back in 2005 Jeff received a lot of spam: http://acme.com/mail_filtering/
    
    Finally, let me point out that acme.com was registered on 1991-04-17. That's a pioneer.
  - Sarcasm
    
    Paul Lutus website : https://arachnoid.com/index.html
  - Visiblink
    
    I really like Michael Lazar's many projects. He's great. https://mozz.us/
    
    John Goertzen also has my serious admiration: https://www.complete.org/john-goerzen/
  - landon
    
    http://httpstatusdogs.com
  - lygaret
    
    I love this archive of research papers by Henry Baker, of "Cheney on the M.T.A." fame:
    
    https://web.archive.org/web/20191008012407/http://home.pipeline.com/~hbaker1/home.html
    
    This and okmij are a graduate level education in themselves