What makes a C# blog good? Pretty much the same thing that makes any blog good, but with a focus on C#, of course. Good C# blogs have:
- Useful news, information, tips and code samples
- Regular updates
- Original content, not a splog or news feed
- Good organization, including categories and tags
- Healthy discussion and user comments
- Personal insight and humor, but not too much personal drivel
Following are the some of best C# blogs active on the Web today. Also included is the "About" section of the blog (edited for space and clarity) and a link to a recent interesting post. Please comment if you can recommend other excellent C# blogs that didn't make my list.
The best C# blogs today are (in alphabetical order):
B# .NET Blog
Bart De Smet's blog about Microsoft .NET technologies, including Microsoft in general, CLR and MSIL internals, C# and the future of the language, .NET Framework tips and tricks, SQL Server, and Microsoft events such as TechEd and IT Forum. (Recent Post: C# 3.0 Object Initializers Revisited)
Bill Blogs in C#
Bill Wagner discusses C#, LINQ, and other items of interest. (Recent Post: Creating Dynamic Queries in LINQ)
Brad Abrams
Design Guidelines, Managed code and the .NET Framework. (Recent Post: What is new in the ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions Preview)
Charlie Calvert's Community Blog
There is no job in the computer industry Charlie would rather have than that of Community Program Manager for the C# group. (Recent Post: LINQ and Deferred Execution)
David Hayden
David is an ASP.NET, C#, SQL Server Developer and Microsoft MVP with over 10 years experience. [Disclosure: I worked with Dave a decade ago at Procter & Gamble. He's a sharp guy.] (Recent Post: Check All CheckBoxes in a GridView Using Client Side Javascript)
Developing for .NET
Home of Joel Cochran and Jim Burnett. The reality of .NET is that with the thousands of classes available, there is simply too much to know. No one can be an expert in everything, so we frequently hit the Search Engines looking for help and solutions to our problems. Hopefully, this blog can help with that. Topics will be simple solutions to common problems, some of them will be cries for help themselves. In either case, everything posted here will be from Joel and Jim's real world experiences. (Recent Post: Upgrade your C# Skills part 3 – Lambda Expressions)
DevTopics
Blog by Timm Martin about software development topics, with a focus on C# and the Microsoft .NET framework. DevTopics also discusses the creation and management of software companies, the software development process, and improving the computer experience for the average user and people with disabilities. And you should also find a healthy dose of programming tips, techniques and code. [Disclosure: This is my blog, of course!] [Update: The C# articles from this blog have moved to C# 411.] (Recent Post: C# Object Initialization)
DotNetGuts
Discussion topics for ASP.net, C#, VB.net, .Net Framework, OOPs Concepts, and Programming. (Recent Post: Design Patterns in ASP.NET 2.0)
ISerializable – Roy Osherove's Blog
Unit Testing, Agile Development, Architecture, Team System & .NET. (Recent Post: IL Debug Visualizer for Compiled Lambda Expressions, MethodBase and DynamicMethod)
The Moth
By Daniel Moth, software developer, former MVP, and now a Microsoft employee. (Recent Post: ThreadPool in .NET Framework v2.0 Service Pack 1)
OmegaMan’s Musings
As a contract Architect/Developer/Programmer in the software industry, OmegaMan creates tools and architects code that never sees the light of day. This blog is a way to transfer some information to the community as a whole. OmegaMan is a moderator on Microsoft's MSDN forums with over 2000 posts. (Recent Post: Smart Resource Locking in C# .Net for Thread Safe Code)
Omer van Kloeten's .NET Zen
Programming is life, the rest is mere details. (Recent Post: WPF's Use of Partial Classes' Access Modifiers)
ScottGu's Blog
By Scott Guthrie, General Manager within the Microsoft Developer Division. Scott runs the development teams that build the following products/technologies: CLR and the core .NET Base Class Libraries, ASP.NET, Silverlight, WPF, IIS 7.0, and Visual Studio Tools for ASP.NET, WPF and Silverlight. (Recent Post: .NET Web Product Roadmap)
Switch on the Code
By Brandon Cannaday, Charlie Key, and Michael Kuehl, software engineers who graduated from the fabulous Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. These are three guys who work full time but in their spare time run their fledgling company. (Recent Post: C# Snippet Tutorial – Performance Timers)
Non-C# Blogs
The following blogs are not C#-specific but nonetheless can be quite useful for C# developers:
10X Software Development
By Steve McConnell. Numerous studies have found 10:1 differences in productivity and quality among individuals and even among teams. This blog contains Steve's thoughts about what is needed to be on the "10″ side of that 10:1 ratio, i.e., what it takes to be a 10x developer or a 10x team. Naturally, this blog focuses on Steve's specific interests: executive management, project management, high performance teams, estimation, reducing time to market, software development methods, construction practices, and related topics. (Recent Post: Classic Mistakes Updated)
Coding Horror
By Jeff Atwood. Why does Jeff blog? Mostly for selfish reasons, he says. "I needed a way to keep track of software development over time–whatever I am thinking about or working on. I can research things I find interesting, document my research in public with a blog post, then easily find and refer to these blog posts later." (Recent Post: Hashtables, Pigeonholes, and Birthdays)
Joel on Software
By Joel Spolsky, a software developer in New York City. Since 2000, Joel has been writing about software development, management, business, and the Internet on this site. (Recent Post: How to Demo Software)
Pawel Brodzinski on Software Project Management
- Blog about the software development lifecycle. You can find here a range of topics from software design, to project management, to team-building, to management of a software development company. (Recent Post: Usability is Made of Small Things)