58
votes

Who in the software engineering and software development fields uses Twitter to tweet about relevant happenings in the field?

3
  • If you can vote and think this is a useful question or it have useful answers below, please vote up. StackExchange sites need votes to build a good community. You can give 30 votes per day, don't waste them. Specially users with high reputation and low counting votes given please read this: meta.programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/393/…
    – Maniero
    Oct 5, 2010 at 19:20
  • Try a few good suggestions, and if you start to feel like they just like to twit for the sake of twitting - quit.
    – Job
    Nov 26, 2010 at 16:12
  • 1
    List questions are off-topic on Stack Exchange. See here for a more detailed explanation.
    – Adam Lear ♦
    Jul 13, 2011 at 13:42

17 Answers 17

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50
votes

I'll probably get flamed for this but...

140 characters is hardly the format to get any real pearls of programming wisdom. Most (but not all) programming concepts/thoughts/ideas require more space to be articulated. I would follow the blogs of the list of programmers that everyone is suggesting.

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  • 20
    That's true, but I would suspect that these people would post some things of interest - either URLs, a blog post (theirs or someone else's) of interest, etc.
    – Thomas Owens ♦
    Sep 2, 2010 at 13:54
  • 5
    I find tons of good links to programming content on twitter each day. Similarly I can't remember how many times I've mentioned a programming related problem I'm having and have somebody actually send me a solution.
    – Jaco Pretorius
    Sep 8, 2010 at 21:12
  • 5
    Twitter is also a good mechanism to be informed of those blog posts. Among other things.
    – Peter Ritchie
    Sep 9, 2010 at 13:50
  • 10
    So many people misunderstand Twitter & what the real power is behind it. Often you will find wisdom in 140 chars, but more frequently, you'll find relevant links and notice trends in the industry. You'll get a pulse for everything going on if you follow the right people. This isn't even taking into account the awesome friendships you gain with colleagues you could never meet without Twitter. Twitter Rocks.
    – John MacIntyre
    Sep 25, 2010 at 3:01
  • 4
    It's sad how the internet has made the "I'll probably get flamed" disclaimer mandatory before expressing an unconventional viewpoint. Btw, +1.
    – talonx
    Sep 26, 2010 at 5:35
24
votes

I maintain a list of over 2300 StackOverflow (SO) twitter accounts sorted by reputation.

I mined the latest SO data dump for all users with twitter accounts, then calculated each user's top tags based on most votes, and finally sorted the lists by user reputation.

Here is a screenshot of what the SO list looks like:

Screenshot of the twitter list

I also mined the available Stack Exchange data dumps. The list of members for this site will also appear on the next data dump.

Here is a subset that is applicable to programmers:

5
  • People who find this site might not be from Stack Overflow. In addition, people who are of interest might not be on Stack Overflow to have a profile there.
    – Thomas Owens ♦
    Sep 1, 2010 at 20:48
  • 2
    @Thomas: Which is why I linked to stackoverflow itself. You don't need an account on stackoverflow to view peoples profiles and view tags. Viewing tags is nothing new if you are using this site as this site has tags too.
    – Brian R. Bondy
    Sep 1, 2010 at 20:58
  • I'm just clarifying for other people who might read this question. Nothing against this answer - I gave you +1.
    – Thomas Owens ♦
    Sep 1, 2010 at 21:30
  • @Thomas: Which is why Brian's excellent answer is only one of the many other good answers provided here.
    – Macneil
    Jan 1, 2011 at 19:31
  • links are broken.
    – Steven Evers
    Jul 13, 2011 at 2:04
15
votes

John Carmack! @ID_AA_Carmack

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  • 1
    Carmack is brilliant and his twitter feed is like a window into his mind. It's fascinating.
    – Matt Olenik
    Sep 12, 2010 at 3:38
9
votes

For a quickstart, have a look to this list:
http://twitter.com/jvortmann/software-guru

You got:

  1. Kent Beck
  2. Martin Fowler
  3. Chad Fowler
  4. UncleBob
  5. Erich Gamma ..

I would then search by name, starting from the book authors you are reading.
For example: i'm currently reading Professional Android Application development by Reto Meier; Googling his name + twitter i get his twitter account.

4
votes

If you're a .Net/Mono developer: Miguel de Icaza

3
votes

Ward Cunningham

3
votes

These are all developers or people who post on technical topics, ordered by amount of interesting programmer-related content. The list is Mac-centric.

2
votes

UncleBob (Robert C. Martin)

1
vote

A few others no-one has mentioned yet

1
vote

I have a little list of Programming Elite ... take the name lightly, there maybe a few on the list whom I only thought were elite, and it's by no means got everybody.

Also, the best way to find smart people to follow is to look at programmers whom you highly respect, and look at who they are following.

And if you don't mind listening to a bit of babbling, you can always follow me. ;-)

0
votes

It depends. Each person has his/her own specialty.

I program in ASP.NET MVC, so I follow shanselman (Scott Hanselman), haacked (Phil Haack), scottgu (Scott Guhrie), and igoro (Igor Ostrovsky). I am really glad they share their knowledge. I learn a lot from them.

0
votes

For Android, here are some fun ones:

Hackers, developers and tinkerers

  • Cyanogen - @cyanogen

  • XDA Developers - @xdadevelopers

  • simms22 - @simms22

  • Koush - code writer - @koush

  • Kmobs - @kmobs

  • Chris Soyars - @chrissoyars

  • Bignup412 - @bignup412

  • Franco Solari - @francoissmexy

  • Sumyunguy - @sumyunguy

  • CyanogenMod Source - @cmsrc

  • Ander Webbs - @anderwebs

  • CyanogenMod - @cyanogenmod

  • Prashant Somashekar, Droid Basement - @pershoot

  • San Mehat, Android Kernal Systems Dev - @sanmehat

  • Bart, Android freak - @amon_ra

  • Tord Fauksganger - @tordf

  • Greg Carron, developer - @pixeladdikt

  • Kyle Weller - @androidunleashd

  • Wes Garner - @wesgarner

Source on Engadget: Who should I follow on Twitter? Android edition

0
votes

For Java Programming: Swapnil Bhattad.

0
votes

As a software engineer, you first need to group whom you'd like to follow 1. Technology specific (i.e if your a java programmer/ .NET programmer/ Ruby etc etc 2. Open Source (if you're interested) 3. Tech magazines for latest in the industry 4. CodingHorror, ScottGu (because I like them!) 5. Authors/Press for latest on books 6. Enterprise level communities 7. Other interests (add humor coz it always helps to have a laugh!)

Once you group them, you can use any of the above lists (they are exhaustive) and look at who they are following. Chances are, you'll find a few interesting ones there. This way, you'll slowly build up a nice set yourself. Try to keep the number around 100+.

Here's a nice article on How To Twitter - First Steps and a Twitter Glossary

But trust me, its an ocean of information out there. I spend at least an hour a day going through all the tweets.

-4
votes

Nobody at all. Stop browsing sites like twitter when you should be coding. Then watch your productivity improve.

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  • 7
    That's a bit rich, @Finnw - what are you doing on here then? ;-)
    – Paddyslacker
    Sep 2, 2010 at 5:45
  • 4
    Do as I say not as I do :-)
    – finnw
    Sep 2, 2010 at 10:23
  • @finnw - You must be a parent :)
    – Walter
    Sep 2, 2010 at 12:15
  • 4
    Who said anyone was browsing Twitter when coding?
    – Thomas Owens ♦
    Sep 2, 2010 at 13:53
  • 1
    @finnw - by following e.g. @newsycombinator I've found more blogs than I'd ever see any other way.
    – Jeremy McGee
    Sep 16, 2010 at 5:33

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