Ask HN: How do you manage working with multiple languages?

#1

Post by alt » Tue, Oct 05, 2010, 7:34 PM UTC

Everyone has a language that they love working in, but sometimes the problems at hand require different tools. This may mean writing code in 2 or 3 languages a day. How do you write great code in any language while staying true to the language's ideals and not trying to transform it to work as other languages?

EDIT: When working with C/Cuda, python, and perl throughout the day, I find myself being pythonic in perl, and whatnot, or not being pythonic in python after working in C/cuda. Then I have to go back in refactor. I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually, I was just wondering what HN does to keep their head straight.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage working with multiple languages?

#2

Post by ashleyreddy » Tue, Oct 05, 2010, 7:37 PM UTC

I work on C# on the pc side and objective C on the iPhone side. I don't have a problem going back and forth. Try it out for yourself. I don't think its that much of an issue.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage working with multiple languages?

#3

Post by kevinelliott » Tue, Oct 05, 2010, 7:43 PM UTC

I personally try to segment my time so that I'm focused in one language at a time. This gives me an opportunity to search the web and read documentation on the language at the same time, so I'm improving my ability to use the language.

For example, I often work with Objective-C (iPhone/iPad) as well as Ruby + Ruby on Rails + HTML + CSS (backend). Some days I really need to work in both environments, but I try to spend most of my days focusing on one.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage working with multiple languages?

#4

Post by kertap » Tue, Oct 05, 2010, 7:48 PM UTC

I have to jump between JavaScript and Java at work. The biggest problem for me usually is the small syntax mistakes I create, e.g. using var in a java file or "int i" in a javascript for loop.

But I find the differences in syntax help compartmentalize how I code. As soon as I get the compiler error in the java file it jar's be back into the java way of thinking.