For me, it definitely did. I started with Perl and system C, so my style was originally very hacky. Later on I turned to Python and it taught me how to write cleaner interfaces. Now that I know how much influence it has, I strive to use Lua for my personal code, and the way it shapes how I think is my main reason for that. It balances the bad habits I sometimes get from working at a Ruby shop :) The next language I will learn in depth will probably be a LISP, for the same reason. The tools you use have an influence, too. When I'm at home, I write code in nano, without syntax highlighting, in a 80x24 terminal. I found out it helped me focus on important things and write locally meaningful code from my systems / network programming background.