Are you a specialist or a generalist ?
I think I’m a generalist. I enjoy coding in almost any language ( except batch scripting – which shouldn’t be considered coding anyway ). I’ve wrote stuff in c/c++/java/javascript/ruby/python/perl/php/autoit . Each one seems great for a particular task, for example :
- AutoIT : when automating windows apps
- Ruby : mostly for mechanize, and sometimes rails
- Python : finesse scripting , whatever that means
- Java : all purpose tools
- Perl : I don’t use it anymore, but it’s top notch for text processing
- C/C++ : I try to avoid them as much as I can, but they’re required knowledge @ work
- Javascript : some ajax now and then
- PHP : I try to avoid it as much as I can, because it reminds me of perl
I feel that being able to code in them makes me a better coder, but it comes with a downside. As soon as I get a hang of something, I move on to the next thing, instead of trying to learn as much as I can about them.
What about you? Are you a generalist or a specialist? Why?
