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OT: Polyglot programming article?

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Jay Levitt

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Dec 25, 2007, 11:02:02 AM12/25/07
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About three or four months ago, I ran across a great article/blog post
somewhere, arguing that corporations (like Google) should stop restricting
their developers to two or three specific programming languages.

I specifically remember it making the point that even if we only program a
web app in "one language", like C++ or Java, we really end up programing in
about 30 languages anyway: batch scripts, shell scripts, Apache config,
SQL, macros, templates, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSON or XML, etc.

Can anyone remember this article? It was NOT:

- Martin Fowler's OneLanguage article on his bliki
-
- Any of the "learn a new language every year" posts; this was focused on
company policy, not developer enrichment
- Neal Ford's Polyglot Programming post (it was longer than that)
- Bob Warfield's SmoothSpan post

Please let me know if you know the one I mean. (And if you feel the need
to argue for/against polyglot programming, please, PLEASE, at least rename
the subject line.)

--
Jay Levitt |
Boston, MA | My character doesn't like it when they
Faster: jay at jay dot fm | cry or shout or hit.
http://www.jay.fm | - Kristoffer

Richard Conroy

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Dec 25, 2007, 3:40:07 PM12/25/07
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On Dec 25, 2007 4:04 PM, Jay Levitt <jay+...@jay.fm> wrote:
> About three or four months ago, I ran across a great article/blog post
> somewhere, arguing that corporations (like Google) should stop restricting
> their developers to two or three specific programming languages.

Well it was not specifically addressing google, who have 4 canonical languages,

> I specifically remember it making the point that even if we only program a
> web app in "one language", like C++ or Java, we really end up programing in
> about 30 languages anyway: batch scripts, shell scripts, Apache config,
> SQL, macros, templates, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSON or XML, etc.
>
> Can anyone remember this article? It was NOT:
>
> - Martin Fowler's OneLanguage article on his bliki

I would look at Tim Brays writings. He probably wasn't the author, but
he definitely
linked to them. 'polyglot programming' is a bit of a big meme at the moment.

Jay Levitt

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Dec 25, 2007, 10:27:58 PM12/25/07
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On Tue, 25 Dec 2007 15:40:07 -0500, Richard Conroy wrote:

> On Dec 25, 2007 4:04 PM, Jay Levitt <jay+...@jay.fm> wrote:
>> About three or four months ago, I ran across a great article/blog post
>> somewhere, arguing that corporations (like Google) should stop restricting
>> their developers to two or three specific programming languages.
>
> Well it was not specifically addressing google, who have 4 canonical languages,

I stand corrected. Two or three or *four* specific programming languages
:)

>
>> I specifically remember it making the point that even if we only program a
>> web app in "one language", like C++ or Java, we really end up programing in
>> about 30 languages anyway: batch scripts, shell scripts, Apache config,
>> SQL, macros, templates, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSON or XML, etc.
>>
>> Can anyone remember this article? It was NOT:
>>
>> - Martin Fowler's OneLanguage article on his bliki
>
> I would look at Tim Brays writings. He probably wasn't the author, but
> he definitely
> linked to them. 'polyglot programming' is a bit of a big meme at the moment.

Yeah, but I seem to remember it using either another term, or no term at
all... wasn't Tim Bray, but it was someone like him. Wasn't Steve Yegge
either. And Googling for things like "C Java script developers languages"
is pretty futile.

Argh, now it's gonna drive me nuts, like "Who was that guy with the shirt
in that movie?"

M. Edward (Ed) Borasky

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Dec 26, 2007, 2:58:22 AM12/26/07
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Jay Levitt wrote:
>
> Argh, now it's gonna drive me nuts, like "Who was that guy with the shirt
> in that movie?"

The guy with the shirt in that movie was Alec Guinness.
>


MonkeeSage

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Dec 26, 2007, 3:29:09 AM12/26/07
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On Dec 26, 1:58 am, "M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <zn...@cesmail.net>
wrote:

Heh. Well, 3PO is fluent in over six million languages, and if that's
not a polyglot, I don't know what is. ;)

M. Edward (Ed) Borasky

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Dec 26, 2007, 4:09:12 AM12/26/07
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six million? that's more like a poly *glut*

<ducking>

Martin DeMello

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Dec 26, 2007, 9:43:37 AM12/26/07
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On Dec 25, 2007 8:04 PM, Jay Levitt <jay+...@jay.fm> wrote:
>
> I specifically remember it making the point that even if we only program a
> web app in "one language", like C++ or Java, we really end up programing in
> about 30 languages anyway: batch scripts, shell scripts, Apache config,
> SQL, macros, templates, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSON or XML, etc.
>
> Can anyone remember this article? It was NOT:

Ringing a vague bell - I might have seen it on reddit. Try posting an
"ask reddit" on programming.reddit.com - someone there is bound to
know.

martin

Jay Levitt

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Dec 26, 2007, 11:46:56 AM12/26/07
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Now you're REALLY dating yourself... for me, the guy with the shirt in that
movie is usually Steve Buscemi or J.T. Walsh :)

(There actually used to be a web site called "Hey! It's that Guy!" with
lists of character actors. It was great fun to browse. Sadly, it seems to
be defunct and the domain hijacked.)

Speaking of hijacked, since we've hijacked the thread, I just want to put
this out there: I really want to know the name of the voice actor who did
the Oxy-10 commercials (and Britches Great Outdoors, and a few others).
Someday, someone will Google this and tell me. Maybe. Even the brand
manager at Oxy doesn't know (he's new).

He sounds like this:

http://www.jay.fm/files/voice/oxy10%20-%201984.mp3

Martin DeMello

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Dec 27, 2007, 7:53:13 AM12/27/07
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On Dec 26, 2007 8:54 PM, Jay Levitt <jay+...@jay.fm> wrote:
> On Wed, 26 Dec 2007 02:58:22 -0500, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:
>
> >> Argh, now it's gonna drive me nuts, like "Who was that guy with the shirt
> >> in that movie?"
> >
> > The guy with the shirt in that movie was Alec Guinness.
>
> Now you're REALLY dating yourself... for me, the guy with the shirt in that
> movie is usually Steve Buscemi or J.T. Walsh :)

All I know is it wasn't Hugh Jackman :)

martin

Clifford Heath

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Dec 31, 2007, 4:07:39 AM12/31/07
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Jay Levitt wrote:
> I ran across a great article/blog post...

Hmm, probably not mine, though I've used and written about such things
for years... I'm also the author of the Polyglot gem on rubyforge :-).
Might be a basis for a search though...

Clifford Heath.

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