OT: Polyglot programming article?

[jay-levitt]

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 F.'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]

On Dec 25, 2007 4:04 PM, Jay L. [email protected] 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 F.'s OneLanguage article on his bliki

I would look at Tim B.s 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]

On Tue, 25 Dec 2007 15:40:07 -0500, Richard C. wrote:

On Dec 25, 2007 4:04 PM, Jay L. [email protected] 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 would look at Tim B.s 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 B., 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?”

[jay-levitt]

On Dec 26, 1:58 am, “M. Edward (Ed) Borasky” [email protected]
wrote:

Jay L. 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.

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

[jay-levitt]

Jay L. 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.

[jay-levitt]

On Dec 25, 2007 8:04 PM, Jay L. [email protected] 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]

MonkeeSage wrote:

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

six million? that’s more like a poly glut

[jay-levitt]

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

(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

[jay-levitt]

Jay L. 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 H…

[jay-levitt]

On Dec 26, 2007 8:54 PM, Jay L. [email protected] 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