Ask HN: How often do you swap between languages ?

by code_devil on 3/23/2009, 4:37 PM with 4 comments

I was wondering how often people jump between various languages in a day and how it affects productivity.

In my case, I use Perl at work. I then jump to PHP, Python, and Javascript at home for personal projects almost on a daily basis. As an example, I have to google how to compute the length of an array if its :

1. strlen(myString)

2. myString.length()

3. myString.length

NB: I generally use Emacs for writing code in *nix/Mac and Notepad++ if on a Win Box.

  • by TJensen on 3/23/2009, 5:03 PM

    I use Java and Flex throughout the day and switch to Python and Objective C in the evening. I agree that I've reached my limit on storing the massive standard libraries these languages have in my head, but I think use of IDEs in the past has made this worse for me (I got lazy).

    I'm back to using Emacs almost exclusively in an attempt to remember the APIs. I know I'll take an early hit for it, but I'm hoping I'll make up for it.

  • by sdp on 3/23/2009, 5:53 PM

    I use Groovy and Java at school; PHP and Python at work; and finally Smalltalk and C at home.

    I have recently switched from all emacs, to TextMate at school and home, and emacs at work (although I'm trying to see if JEdit will work better).

  • by iamwil on 3/23/2009, 5:55 PM

    Ruby and Javascript at work.

    Otherwise, I'm playing around with Lua, Ruby, Erlang, and Python.

  • by noodle on 3/23/2009, 4:52 PM

    i use about 5 languages at work, and 2 or 3 more at home. you get used to it, really. a good IDE helps in the case of forgetting something like how to find length.