The Zuulcat Archives

"Polyglot (person), someone who uses many languages" --Wikipedia

A while back I had an idea about something I called the Software Developer Tool Belt. Basically the idea states that every problem is not a nail and as such can't always be handled with a hammer. In practice this means that a professional software developer needs to expand his horizon and look at a multitude of programming languages. My initial draft of the Software Developer Tool Belt included a minimum of 5 programming languages:

• Two mainstream OO type languages (C#, Java, C++)
• One dynamic language (Ruby, Python, JavaScript)
• One functional language (Haskell, LISP, Erlang)
• One script language (Perl, Lua)

This was an idea I created after being inspired by a pod cast. It seemed to worked pretty well and with those tools at your disposal you would be able to solve most problems. At first glance this might seem reasonable but giving it further thought it never did sit quite right with me. Why five? Why this distribution? Is it enough? Is it too much?

I now see that it was never about languages, the languages where only a tool to convey something far more important.

Before I move on to explain myself let me ask you a question. If an experienced C# programmer who has never touched Java got placed in a Java team would it be a problem for him to pick up Java given, coaching from his team mates?

Personally I think it wouldn't and I suggest that this is because C# and Java share many of the same paradigms. If you already understand and master the paradigms of one language learning a similar language is only a matter of mastering the syntax and tools.

This leads me to the conclusion that it's not really about what language or how many languages you have on your tool belt. It's about understanding and mastering the paradigms of these programming languages. Once you know the basic building blocks of programming languages you can easily pick up a new language by learning the syntax and tooling.

This might sound complex but actually it’s a tremendous simplification. It’s much simpler to master paradigms than it is to master languages. One reason for this is that there are virtually infinite numbers of languages out there but only a small set of paradigms. Paradigms are also, themselves, smaller and simpler than entire languages. Besides, all programmers already know a whole bunch of paradigms; they just don’t realize it.

Learning and understanding paradigms also stops you from repeat learning. Once you realize that many things are the same or similar across languages you don't have to start over every time. You can easily map the knowledge you have to a new language and read up on the paradigms you are missing. I know many people do this already but if you break it down to paradigms you can structure your learning in a more efficient way.

The definition of a polyglot programmer states that you should be proficient in several languages. In my opinion the easiest way to become a polyglot programmer is to master programming language paradigms.

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