[jeroenhd]

I've mostly seen language mixing in frontend. Backends seem to end up either being completely ported to a new (compatible) language, or experimental new languages get ported back. Perhaps frontend developers are just more versatile because they have to, with frameworks and the base spec constantly shifting under their feet.

Even many backend devs seem to shy away from things like SQL because they're not too comfortable with it. Which isn't bad per se, it's very easy to make a small mistake in a query that crushes the database, just a personal observation of mine.

[kasey_junk]

In 30 years as a backend engineer I’ve never worked in a single language codebase.

The idea that there is some rule that you don’t mix languages seems like absolute nonsense. If someone suggested to me that it was _possible_ I’d be extremely curious what wild tradeoffs they were making to get there.

[jeroenhd]

I think it makes sense to have a preference for a single language in code bases when all of your developers only have one language in common and are not interested in learning any more languages in the future. That doesn't necessarily make it a golden rule.

However, in my work I've seen plenty of developers with all manner of interests and experiences align only on one or two languages, and if that's your company's talent pool, single language code bases seem like a good idea.

Of course this skips over all the usage of scripting languages (makefile/bash/Python/XML) which in my experience are seen as quirks of build tooling rather than part of the product.

[QuadmasterXLII]

There’s also complementary vs competitive: C++/python (pytorch, itk, ROS) or Go/js (default web stack) aren’t going to quibble over what belongs in what language- react/swift or c/rust codebases have no such natural partition

[toyg]

> Perhaps frontend developers are just more versatile

Considering that they'll want to use Node even to make coffee, I'd argue that statement is wildly inaccurate.