I agree with you post. Here are three issues I have with Software Engineers that are okay with many languages but have not mastered one:

1. The learn-a-new-langauges-annually thing is so 1980’s. You could pick up a book like one by Peter Norton and know everything you need to know about computers then. Now, it takes years to get proficient (not good or great) at ASP.NET and C# (with its huge API). Plus, you got WPF, WF, EF 4 and many others. This is only in the .NET space. Now you have Ruby on Rail, Clojure etc- Rocky Lhotka full-time job is to keep current with just .NET and he cannot. Technology moves too fast and is too large to try everything and expect to know the quirks, bells and whistles to be competent.

2. C# has features from functional languages, dynamic languages OOP languages and more. This reduces the need to try to get a functional language feel from a pure functional language.

3. It takes dedication to become great at a tool/API, especially those with high learning curves (e.g. WPF.) Distracting yourself by trying to learn everything else can reduce you powess and mastery in a tool. If you are afraid of getting stuff knowing one thing that may be gone tommorrow, there will be tutorials. For example, Microsoft guided Software Engineers that moved from VB6 to VB.NET. You just will not be dead in the water.

Now, languages designers may need to learn a new language annually. Plus, it does not hurt if you learn a new languages annually just because you like programming. However, nowadays I do not feel that it is that urgent as it was in previous decades. Plus, polyglot-languages like C# lets you dive into non-OOP features. It is better to solve a programming the long way and quickly with a tool you are great at and can easily support THEN to build it with a more suitable tool you do not know well, may take longer to build since you are learning along the way and will forces others to learn things way outside their knowledge-area to support.

try {
Locator loc = LocatorFactory.createLocator(“locationOfXMLFileFromHellOrSomeClassloaderThing”);
Factory f = loc.locate(“factoryName”);
Locator factoryLocator = f.createLocator(Constants.NEEDLESS_CONSTANT);
Factory f = (Factory) factoryLocator.locate(ServiceLocator.createInstance());
MyObjectFinally mof = f.createObject();
} catch (StupidGratuitousCheckedException e) {
throw new RuntimeException(“checked Exceptions Are Stupid and Microsoft was right to remove them from C#”,e);
} catch (SemiRedundantOneOffTypedStupidGratuitousCheckedException e2) {
throw new RuntimeException(“checked Exceptions Are Stupid and Microsoft was right to remove them from C#”,e2);
} catch (FactoryNotLocatedException e3) {
throw new RuntimeException(“checked Exceptions Are Stupid and Microsoft was right to remove them from C#”,e3);
} catch (LocatorNotAbleToBeInstantiatedException e4) {
throw new RuntimeException(“checked Exceptions Are Stupid and Microsoft was right to remove them from C#”,e4);
} catch (XMLException e5) {
throw new RuntimeException(“checked Exceptions Are Stupid and Microsoft was right to remove them from C#”,e5);
} catch (RandomParserMadnessException e6) {
throw new RuntimeException(“checked Exceptions Are Stupid and Microsoft was right to remove them from C#”,e6);
}

But if Java wasn’t horrible like that then how would we fill the JCP committees

I think Polyglotism is fine so long as it is strictly for the noble cause of laziness. I go to great amounts of effort to be lazy!

-Andy