PEP 526 - var annotations and the spirit of python

[Gregory Ewing]

Ian Kelly wrote:
> Just because somebody knows a dozen languages
> doesn't mean that they can come up with the correct algorithm,

That doesn't mean there's no correlation. Someone who is familiar
with a variety of languages is also very likely to be self-motivated
and have enough passion and curiosity to have acquired a broad and
deep knowledge of other aspects of the craft.

> If your production system is built out of a dozen languages,
> you may have a well-tuned system where each language was chosen for a
> solid, specific reason; but you've also got a maintenance nightmare on
> the day that the one programmer who actually understands all of it
> decides to leave.

There are good reasons to restrict the number of languages used, but
it doesn't mean that language-specific job advertisements are the
best way to go about getting staff. The company doesn't really want
a "Java programmer" or whatever, they want a *good* programmer. A
truly good programmer will be able to learn about the language
being used on the job.

-- 
Greg