How to counter the "one true language" perspective? [closed]

Question

How do you work with someone when they haven't been able to see that there is a range of other languages out there beyond "The One True Path"?

I mean someone who hasn't realised that the modern software professional has a range of tools in his toolbox. The person whose knee jerk reaction is, for example, "We must do this is C++!" "Everything must be done in C++!"

What's the best approach to open people up to the fact that "not everything is a nail"? How may I introduce them to having a well-equipped toolbox, selecting the best tool for the job at hand?

Answer 1

As long as there are valid reasons for it to be done in C++, I don't see anything wrong with this monolithic approach.

Of course a good programmer must have many different tools in his/hers toolbox, but these tools don't need to be a new language, it can simply be about learning new programming paradigms.

As much as I've experienced actually, learning many different languages doesn't make you much of a better programmer at all.

This is also true with finding the right language for the job. Yeah ok, if you're doing concurrency you might want a functional language rather than an Object Oriented language, but what are the gains of using another programming language?

Answer 2

At the end of the day; "Maintenance".

If it can be maintained without undue problems then the debate may well be moot and comes down to preference or at least company policy/adopted technology.

If that is satisfied then the debate becomes "Can it be built efficiently to be cost effective and not cause integration problems?"

Beyond that it's simply the screwdriver/build a house argument.