Show me a software craftsmen and I’ll show you someone who can program in any language if they had to. From time to time I meet developers who define themselves by the one and only programming language they know…
“I’m a Java developer”, “I’m a .NET developer”. It’s deplorable. I suspect such people don’t care much for their career.
Better are developers who can whip up code in multiple languages. Web developers, for example, often have to code in javascript in addition to the primary language whether it be Ruby, Java, or .NET. That’s respectable.
Yet, many of these developers are intimidated by the notion of programming in some other language like C or C++. It’s a shame. There’s lot’s to learn from unfamiliar languages.
A Craftsman will not shy away from using the right language for the job. They understand that the act of programming is fundamentally the same despite the language being used.
A craftsman is not intimidated by unfamiliar languages. When they’re confronted with a new language, they’ll learn it. After all, new programming languages are easy to learn.