On using multiple languages for a singular code golf submission

Question

I was wondering if it were possible to use multiple languages in the same submission. Not a polyglot, but using each of the languages. I have two thoughts on this.

1. One language invokes the other. Let's say we have a Ruby + JavaScript solution. Then, you could have, say, puts %x(node a) in run.rb and console.log(x=>x) in a, and have rub.rb be the main solution.
2. Alternatively, each language could read the output of the previous language as input. E.g., invoke like <input> | <language a> | <langauge b>.

How would these be scored? How would it be consistent, concerning the usage of langs (e.g. multiple usages of the same lang)? How would it compare with each of its component languages? Should it be allowed at all? If not, why not?

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Here is an example of a multi-language submission, using method 2:

J + Ruby, idk bytes

Ruby, ruby.rb:

p gets.split.map(&:to_i).map{|s|s+4}

J, j.ijs:

exit echo 1+i.10

Invoke like:

j.ijs | ruby.rb

Output:

[5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14]

Answer 1

Yes, it's perfectly valid

The byte count of the solution would be the sum of the byte counts of any files involved, plus the length of any special invocations needed.

For your first example, you have this:

//run.rb
puts %x(node a)

//a
console.log(x=>x)

This would be invoked as ruby run.rb, and would be in the language Ruby + nodeJS, with a byte count of 32, assuming no trailing newlines in the files.

For your second example, you could have something like this:

python -c 'print range(10)' | node -e 'console.log(x=>x*x)'

In this case, the byte count would be:

• 15 bytes for the Python 2 program (print range(10))
• 32 bytes for the non-standard invocation for a Python 2 program ( | node -e 'console.log(x=>x*x)')

or

• 19 bytes for the nodeJS program (console.log(x=>x*x))
• 30 bytes for the non-standard invocation for a nodeJS program (python -c 'print range(10)' | )

So, the byte count would be either 47 (counting Python 2 as the primary driver) or 49 (counting nodeJS as the primary driver). You would then choose the byte count more optimized for the scoring criteria (the 47 for code-golf, for example). The language for this submission would be Python 2 + nodeJS + sh (the sh is included because of the piping on the command line).