Google launches a web reference/encyclopedia called Doctype, under an open license, with collaborative editing. The site includes, for example, compatibility charts for popular browsers for every point of reference, and a good selection of HOWTO articles.

According to Jeff Atwood, programmers don’t read anymore. And in my small slice of the universe he’s mostly right, a problem of motivation, time, and a lack of good reading materials.

So what’s a developer to do? How about you spend a few hours reading this week. Here are a few recommendations:

• A paper on Causality and probability theory (Postscript)
• A Kerneltrap post on the C semantics of constants and pointers (good comments too)
• A free Addison Wesley book on C++ Gotchas
• A manuscript on Linkers and Loaders
• A large collection of demos and essays on how to think in terms of extensible CSS
• Linus comparing the organization of the Linux Kernel to the evolution of the universe
• Dijkstra answers questions from students about software engineering
• A paper on coroutines in C
• A manuscript for an upcoming book on algorithms (PDF)
• A paper entitled ‘Software Is Hard‘

There’s no excuse for a professional who doesn’t read: understanding needs to be fostered and is always incomplete. And excellence is fueled by obsessively feeding, exercising, and applying the mind. So what are you reading this week?