I'm a polyglot programmer. I work in a variety of languages but mostly in [C##](/tags/c-sharp/), [Typescript](/tags/typescript/), and [Rust](/tags/rust/). Every few years, I try a new language to see if I can pick up new ideas or if one "fits" my current mental state better. This is also why I've done a lot dozens of other languages; I would say I know over thirty languages but I'm only a "master" in a handful.
I also flit from project to project. I have my [writing](/categories/writing/) and games. I have little one-off programs and ones that I hope will become a major thing. But, like everything else in my life, I'm "gloriously unfocused" on my tasks which means I have to minimize the speed that I get into a project.
One of the earliest approaches I had to try getting a proper environment at the per-project level was [asdf](/tags/asdf). It worked out fairly well for a few years, but then I noticed that my various novels and stories were getting fragile. There were limitations that `asdf` couldn't handle easily which meant I needed something more reliable. That led me into [Nix](/tags/nix/) which is my current setup because entering the directory sets up that project's settings while still giving me the reproducibility I need for my novels.
This means that most of my projects now have a `./flake.nix` and a `./flake.lock` in the root level.
Because I've fallen in love with [Semantic Releases](/tags/semantic-release/) and [Conventional Commits](/tags/conventional-commits/), a lot of my processes are built around those. In earlier projects, that usually meant that almost every project _also_ included Node in some form so I could use [semantic-release](https://github.com/semantic-release/semantic-release). That also meant I could use `package.json` to handle versioning.
Though, recent thoughts have suggested that I need to break that "one tool fits all" approach. Mostly it came while working on [Nitride](/tags/nitride/) and this website. I found myself trying to have "one build system" to create everything related to the site, including handling Javascript and CSS/SASS. Those are two very complicated projects in C##, so I realize it made sense that instead of creating a Nitride task to call [webpack](/tags/webpack/), I really should just call `webpack` directly. In other words, the [Unix philosophy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy).
This is where being a polyglot and using different tools comes into play. I have a website that does C##, Typescript, and SASS at the same time. Which one is the "root", which command drives everything? What about a Rust project? Or something else?
That has kind of led me to my current approach. Instead of always packaging Node in my projects, I really should have a standard location to handle the various actions/targets that apply to any project. Right now, that seems to be shell scripts.
With shell scripts, I just have to know that `./scripts/build.sh` will do whatever is needed to build the target. Same with `./scripts/test.sh` and `./scripts/release.sh`. A Rust project may call Cargo, a .NET project will call `dotnet`, and polyglot will call any and all needed to build it.
This will give me room to experiment. If I decide I want to play with [Cake](/tags/cake/) for my .NET projects, then it still works out because it is just a consistent place. If I want to use [Lefthook](/tags/lefthook/) instead of [Husky](/tags/husky/), I can.
I also went with `.sh` suffixes on the files because while I mostly code in [Linux](/tags/linux/), I also want to support [Powershell](/tags/powershell/) and [Windows](/tags/windows/). That way, it is also clear that `build.sh` and `build.ps1` probably result in the same end-result, but specific for that language. (I know Powershell runs on Linux too.)
Obviously, some documentation would be required, but that could be a `README.md` file in that directory. That will look nice in [GitLab](/tags/gitlab/) and give documentation.
