I was simply going to post a comment @ this blog but Alanis Morissette is telling me to make a post instead. I’ve always been a strong believer in learning more than one language for two major reasons:
1. A good programmer programs
They don’t work. I’ve always found the best programmer is someone who codes for fun, passion and enjoyment. They don’t do it as a means to an end, to make money or simply to be employed. If you only code to earn a wage then maybe you need to take a long look at yourself because you’ll never be anything more than mediocre at it.
2. Each teaches you Something about the other
Without Rails I would never have bothered using the MVC pattern in my web development. I’m not a better PHP developer for it. Without learning Java I would never have done OO. Without Python I would never have bothered with lambda functions. Without Ruby I would never have had the joy of iterating with blocks. Without Haskell I’d have never realised how lucky I am to know all those other languages.
So learning more than one or two is vital to your health – do it.
