Today the Dr. Dobbs website, sequel of the august publication of the same name, announced that it was going out of business.
It is an announcement that causes me some sadness. Dr. Dobbs was the last of the "originals", the publications of the Elder Days before the web, before the internet, before Windows, and even before the IBM PC.
It was a very different time. Computers were slow, low-powered, expensive, and rare. The personal computers at the time used processors that ran at 1 MHz or 2 MHz, had (perhaps) 64KB of RAM, and often stored data on cassette tapes. A typical computer system cost anywhere from $1000 to $4000 (in 1980 dollars!).
Magazines like Dr. Dobbs were the lifeblood of the industry. They provided news, product announcements, reviews, and articles on theory and on practice. In a world without the internet and web sites, magazines were the way to learn about these strange new devices called computers.
Today, computers are fast, powerful, cheap, and common. So common and so cheap that people leave working computers in the trash. So fast and powerful that we no longer care (much) about the processor speed or memory size.
Not only are computers plentiful, but information about computers is plentiful. Various web sites provide news, opinion, and technical information. We don't need a single "go to" site for all of that information; Google can find it for us.
So, goodbye to Dr Dobbs. You served us well. You helped us through a difficult time, and shared information with many. You were one of the factors in the success of those early days, and therefore the success of the PC industry today. You will be missed.
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