Polyglot Programming – the simultaneous use of multiple languages and paradigms holds the promise to improve productivity, extensibility and end-user customization; at the same time, it threatens to increase complexity, learning curve and maintenance costs.
Are polyglot programmers the Leonardo da Vinci’s of software engineering? Or do they just have an uncontrollable urge to use any language, programming paradigm and design pattern as soon as they become aware of its existence?
Lou Bega‘s 1999 hit, ‘Mambo Number 5′ (see video clip below), describes the tedious life of someone who wants to try them all:
The slightly altered version below proves how the life of a polyglot programmer can be just as complicated:
Mumbo Jumbo Number 5 / Loom Buggy
Ladies and gentleman, this is Mumbo Jumbo Number 5
One, two, three, four, five
Everything is in the jar, so come on let’s surf to
the app store around the corner
The boys say they want some Spring and Guice but I really was gonna
Do another sprint like I had last week
I must stay deep because this is hip
I like Java, Scala, Perl and Ruby
And as I continue you know I’m getting Groovy
So what can I do I really beg you my Lord
To me programming it’s just like a sport,
Anything fly, it’s all good
Let me run it
Please start up the server
A little bit of Python in my life, a little bit of Haskell by my side
A little bit of Clojure is all I need, a little bit of Lua is what I see
A little bit of Ajax just for fun, a little bit of Smalltalk all night long
A little bit of Unix shell here I am, a little bit of Lisp makes me the man
Mumbo Jumbo Number 5
Jump up and down, refactor all around
Search for the bugs, replace what you found
From imperative, static, object oriented
To functional, dynamic, highly integrated
Apply them all just once or twice,
And if it looks like a mess then you are doing it right
A little bit of Javascript in my life, a little bit of Erlang by my side
A little bit O’Caml is all I need, a little bit of C# is what I see
A little bit of COBOL just for fun, a little bit of Fortran all night long
A little bit of PHP here I am, a little bit of C makes me the man
The server, start the server
Mumbo Jumbo Number 5
A little bit of Java in my life, a little bit of Scala by my side
A little bit of Ruby is all I need, a little bit of Groovy is what I see
A little bit of Ada just for fun, a little bit of VB all night long
A little bit of ActionScript here I am, a little bit of Perl makes me the man
I do all, to
Use every language in my queue
You can’t run and you can’t hide
Every paradigm will be applied
Mumbo Jumbo Number 5
Tags: design paradigms, Polyglot Programming, Programming Languages