More Languages or Deeper Understand?

[BlaineSch]

My teacher in one of my classes listed of 10 languages each programmer should know and then said something like the more languages the know the better. Do you agree with this statement?

I realize the deeper understand you know of a language the more you can do about it, nobody can really know everything about a language. Also when you get a job, how many languages do you expect to be working in all the time? More than 2?

What do you guys think?
How many languages do you know?
How many do you want to know?
What language do you know the most?

Discuss!

[WingedPanther]

You should definitely know more than one language. You should also know at least one of those very, very well.

Languages I work with regularly for my job: Delphi, VBScript/ASP, ColdFusion, SQL, HTML/CSS, JavaScript. In addition, I have worked with or use C++, Java, QuickBasic, Pascal, and PHP. I probably know C++ the best of those, even though I use my work languages the most.

[BlaineSch]

So how many languages is that? 11?

[amrosama]

specializing in a set of related languages would be amazing
read this blog:
http://forum.codecall.net/blogs/wing...an-hammer.html

[Jordan]

Know one well and enough to work with/modify several others. In my job I use PHP, Perl, Bash Scripting and C#. I've had to dabble in ASP and Visual basic at work.

[BlaineSch]

So you specialize in a few, how many do you believe you should really be comfortable in? So far I think WP has the most.

[marwex89]

One language won't do - just like you can't build a house with a screwdriver. Or hammer. You need more tools. This is because different languages approaches things differently. You can do a lot of fine carving with a language like C, but when you chop the tree you'd rather go for a scripting language.

I'd go for at least:
- 1 low level/semi-low level language that allows you to do anything you want
- 1 RAD language that allows you to do a lot - quickly
- 1 scripting language - these always come in handy for some reason

After the languages have been learned, one should go wild studying data structures, algorithms, computer theory (etc. etc.) to make you a better programmer.

Personally I know and use:
- LabView (RAD)
- VisualBasic 6/VBA (RAD)
- C (low level)
- C++ (semi-low level)
- Python (scripting)
- Bash (scripting)

I also know some:
- Assembly
- Java
- Pascal (I used to know this one well, but I haven't used it for years...)
- C#
- VB.NET

But not enough to be dangerous. Or... maybe just that.

If there is one language I would like to learn, that would be Delphi. I hear Winged uses it, and I could use one more RAD language. I'm not very fond of .NET, VB6 basically sucks, and LabView is expensive and you need a runtime engine. I don't do any web development yet (though I will, eventually). Therefore I haven't cared about PHP, JavaScript and other web-related creations. I know some HTML but that doesn't really count as a language IMO...

[Shaddix]

well, my view on this is that if you have a deep knowledge about a language it's easier to learn a new one

most programming languages (and than I don't mean languages like html & css) have very much in common

if you have good understanding from 1 language it's not that difficult to learn an other one, the way you have to think is the same but the things you use are named different and the syntax is a different

[marwex89]

^- Agree with the above, but if you know Perl and jumps to ASM you'll get a problem..

[BlaineSch]

Yes, I agree with you two. Once I got a good grasp on a few languages I found picking up a new one was not very hard.

So from what I can gather you all agree that knowing a lot of languages that do different things is definitely still needed but having a few you really know is also needed to be an efficient programmer.

Specialize in a few? 2-4?
Comfortable in a lot? 4-6?

Do you think if you knew too many languages it would get harder and harder to keep them separated as far as functions and syntax?