Programmer vs software engineer
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I continually have to check the details of syntax and stuff when programming. Things like print format specifiers, the syntax of things I havent used for a year or so, and use a calculator to work out bit masks and check my bit wise logic. I can never get it right in my head. I dont remember details. I dont pride myself on that. I spend my time and energy on the big picture. Designing and understanding complex mechanisms. The architecture. The guts of the machine. So I think of myself as a software engineer, not a programmer. How about you lot?
My wife seems to think Software Engineer sounds better.
Alex
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I continually have to check the details of syntax and stuff when programming. Things like print format specifiers, the syntax of things I havent used for a year or so, and use a calculator to work out bit masks and check my bit wise logic. I can never get it right in my head. I dont remember details. I dont pride myself on that. I spend my time and energy on the big picture. Designing and understanding complex mechanisms. The architecture. The guts of the machine. So I think of myself as a software engineer, not a programmer. How about you lot?
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I continually have to check the details of syntax and stuff when programming. Things like print format specifiers, the syntax of things I havent used for a year or so, and use a calculator to work out bit masks and check my bit wise logic. I can never get it right in my head. I dont remember details. I dont pride myself on that. I spend my time and energy on the big picture. Designing and understanding complex mechanisms. The architecture. The guts of the machine. So I think of myself as a software engineer, not a programmer. How about you lot?
I consider myself as a Developer. This includes Analysis and Modeling as well as Programming :)
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I continually have to check the details of syntax and stuff when programming. Things like print format specifiers, the syntax of things I havent used for a year or so, and use a calculator to work out bit masks and check my bit wise logic. I can never get it right in my head. I dont remember details. I dont pride myself on that. I spend my time and energy on the big picture. Designing and understanding complex mechanisms. The architecture. The guts of the machine. So I think of myself as a software engineer, not a programmer. How about you lot?
Programmer. "Software Engineer" is a contradictory term. If engineers designed machines the way programmers write software, civilization as we understand it would collapse in a couple of hours.
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I continually have to check the details of syntax and stuff when programming. Things like print format specifiers, the syntax of things I havent used for a year or so, and use a calculator to work out bit masks and check my bit wise logic. I can never get it right in my head. I dont remember details. I dont pride myself on that. I spend my time and energy on the big picture. Designing and understanding complex mechanisms. The architecture. The guts of the machine. So I think of myself as a software engineer, not a programmer. How about you lot?
I think of myself as a brilliant technological magician. I tailor my information to the crowd I am addressing. For most people I just say "I write software" because they're not likely to understand (or even want to know) anything more anyway.
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I'm 68, down several teeth (my dad never left me anything but his crappy brittle teeth), and teaching myself C# as I convert my VB6 code to it. It does not get any better.
Getting old is hell, but it does beat the alternative...
I thought I was the only one here that fits this description... glad for the company!
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I thought I was the only one here that fits this description... glad for the company!
There's a lot of us out here.
the not so silent majority...
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I continually have to check the details of syntax and stuff when programming. Things like print format specifiers, the syntax of things I havent used for a year or so, and use a calculator to work out bit masks and check my bit wise logic. I can never get it right in my head. I dont remember details. I dont pride myself on that. I spend my time and energy on the big picture. Designing and understanding complex mechanisms. The architecture. The guts of the machine. So I think of myself as a software engineer, not a programmer. How about you lot?
Hmm.. I remember when we had PAPER terminals for editing our code, in a souped up version of EDLIN called TECO (Text Editor COrrecter). Rewrite your code, no syntax checking. Desk check it. Submit for compile, and come back the NEXT DAY to see if it compiled... Then we got Green screens. Pretty much the same, but fewer trees were killed. Boy things have changed. Being a programmer required the patience of Job. I am embarrassed to admit how often I use autocomplete because you can no longer keep track of the methods on every class you come in contact with... We will always expand our efforts to the point of failure, and then develop newer tools!
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I continually have to check the details of syntax and stuff when programming. Things like print format specifiers, the syntax of things I havent used for a year or so, and use a calculator to work out bit masks and check my bit wise logic. I can never get it right in my head. I dont remember details. I dont pride myself on that. I spend my time and energy on the big picture. Designing and understanding complex mechanisms. The architecture. The guts of the machine. So I think of myself as a software engineer, not a programmer. How about you lot?
Gates, among others, wasn't a "graduate" when he started; was he a "programmer" or an engineer? Depends on what circles you travel in. To my users, I'm The IT Guy ... or that s.o.b. They string up mechanical engineers when bridges fail; when was the last time a "software engineer" was hung? A "software engineer" "should do no harm" (my take); the "engineers" at VW didn't get that.
"(I) am amazed to see myself here rather than there ... now rather than then". ― Blaise Pascal
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I continually have to check the details of syntax and stuff when programming. Things like print format specifiers, the syntax of things I havent used for a year or so, and use a calculator to work out bit masks and check my bit wise logic. I can never get it right in my head. I dont remember details. I dont pride myself on that. I spend my time and energy on the big picture. Designing and understanding complex mechanisms. The architecture. The guts of the machine. So I think of myself as a software engineer, not a programmer. How about you lot?
because I do lots of software maintenance and I am usually fixing stuff that doesn't work :cool: :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
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I continually have to check the details of syntax and stuff when programming. Things like print format specifiers, the syntax of things I havent used for a year or so, and use a calculator to work out bit masks and check my bit wise logic. I can never get it right in my head. I dont remember details. I dont pride myself on that. I spend my time and energy on the big picture. Designing and understanding complex mechanisms. The architecture. The guts of the machine. So I think of myself as a software engineer, not a programmer. How about you lot?
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It's not about the abilities of the individual; it's about the criticality of the product. If it's a web site or line-of-business app, it ain't engineering, so don't call yourself an engineer. There are very very few software engineers. I'm a software developer and architect.
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I thought I was the only one here that fits this description... glad for the company!
I'm the Chief Bit-Byte-Blob Combobulator in my company (of one :) Technically, a "Software Engineer" might not do any actual "Programming" - maybe just designing/architecting. So I don't think it's always an equivalency. $0.02
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I continually have to check the details of syntax and stuff when programming. Things like print format specifiers, the syntax of things I havent used for a year or so, and use a calculator to work out bit masks and check my bit wise logic. I can never get it right in my head. I dont remember details. I dont pride myself on that. I spend my time and energy on the big picture. Designing and understanding complex mechanisms. The architecture. The guts of the machine. So I think of myself as a software engineer, not a programmer. How about you lot?
When they said I was a programmer I worked daily in 2 languages while I knew to varying levels about 5. I used printed manuals since that was all I had available, no google, no web, the index was your friend and remembering was faster. Then they labeled me a developer, I was working daily in about 4 languages and knew many more. The web was just beginning so it still wasn't much use and there was still books and man. Now I am an architect, there are no printed manuals. I can be working at any time in any of around 10 languages. I now realize that all languages are basically the same, except for prolog. Now I think more along "I want to do foo, I have to use language bar, how do I do foo in bar?" Somewhere out on the web somebody has probably done foo in bar or at least something close enough to figure out the rest of the way. I use a calculator for bit masks over 8 bits, I use a regex tool rather than stare at the ceiling. I spend a lot more time thinking about how to make the resulting code/arch understandable to the next person who has to look at it. There are better things to do with my memory and time than tracking the various shiny objects in the field, knowing that I need to do foo is more important. I use the term software engineer to describe myself to people who ask but won't understand. In my head I am just a person that fixes things.
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Sounds like me, though I am down a tooth. :) One thing you left off your list of resources was codeproject. I guess it is a given though because we are all here, aren't we?
Good Point! Oversight on my part. I think that I take Code Project for granted, it's just there. I would be at a loss without my regular email shots from CP. It's not only helped with codeine etc., but I've got some blummin' good applications for free.
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I continually have to check the details of syntax and stuff when programming. Things like print format specifiers, the syntax of things I havent used for a year or so, and use a calculator to work out bit masks and check my bit wise logic. I can never get it right in my head. I dont remember details. I dont pride myself on that. I spend my time and energy on the big picture. Designing and understanding complex mechanisms. The architecture. The guts of the machine. So I think of myself as a software engineer, not a programmer. How about you lot?
I think of software engineer as the guys who write compilers, device drivers, implement network protocols, design operating systems, frameworks, and that sort of thing. Programmers make use of the stuff created by software engineers, in order to build higher level applications. Generally speaking, software engineers build stuff for programmers, while programmers build stuff for everyone else. That being the case, I started out as a software engineer 20+ years ago, but am now a programmer.
On the other hand, you have different fingers. - Steven Wright
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I continually have to check the details of syntax and stuff when programming. Things like print format specifiers, the syntax of things I havent used for a year or so, and use a calculator to work out bit masks and check my bit wise logic. I can never get it right in my head. I dont remember details. I dont pride myself on that. I spend my time and energy on the big picture. Designing and understanding complex mechanisms. The architecture. The guts of the machine. So I think of myself as a software engineer, not a programmer. How about you lot?
I consider myself to be a Software Engineer (Level 5). That's my official title here at FlightSafety Simulation Systems as well. But to function in that capacity, I do need to constantly stay abreast of current programming technologies, environments, and tools. This often makes me feel like a Software Developer. We were Computer Programmers in the 1980s, when we had mainframes and only a few languages like FORTRAN, Pascal, and COBOL. The programs were coded on whole-punched cards that were submitted to the mainframe computer room for compilation, and the output was usually merely on printed paper. There were no IDEs, no Googles, no flat-screen monitors, and no CodeProject. That's when we were Programmers. ;)
Richard Givis Nidan of the Vortex
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I continually have to check the details of syntax and stuff when programming. Things like print format specifiers, the syntax of things I havent used for a year or so, and use a calculator to work out bit masks and check my bit wise logic. I can never get it right in my head. I dont remember details. I dont pride myself on that. I spend my time and energy on the big picture. Designing and understanding complex mechanisms. The architecture. The guts of the machine. So I think of myself as a software engineer, not a programmer. How about you lot?
To me, that is all just a part of programming. I am a programmer, software engineer, analyst, pc technician, operator, operations analyst, electronics newbie, physics newbie, gamer, automation specialist, etc. I just simplify it to Computer Programmer with a Computer Scientist perspective.
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I continually have to check the details of syntax and stuff when programming. Things like print format specifiers, the syntax of things I havent used for a year or so, and use a calculator to work out bit masks and check my bit wise logic. I can never get it right in my head. I dont remember details. I dont pride myself on that. I spend my time and energy on the big picture. Designing and understanding complex mechanisms. The architecture. The guts of the machine. So I think of myself as a software engineer, not a programmer. How about you lot?
If you don't code then your are neither programmer, developer nor software engineer. You are manager or project manager to be precise. Software engineers definitely code, they are also responsible for software architecture (DB, framework, direction, support and even budgeting).
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I continually have to check the details of syntax and stuff when programming. Things like print format specifiers, the syntax of things I havent used for a year or so, and use a calculator to work out bit masks and check my bit wise logic. I can never get it right in my head. I dont remember details. I dont pride myself on that. I spend my time and energy on the big picture. Designing and understanding complex mechanisms. The architecture. The guts of the machine. So I think of myself as a software engineer, not a programmer. How about you lot?
Started as a programmer, learning the skill of coding, but gained appreciation for software engineering in grad school, where very large problems were decimated down into little chunks that even I could understand better. Then I could see that coding within the context of an engineered plan was more pleasant. I could leverage the help of others without breeding discontent and chaos. Each skill uses different parts of my brain, and each can be enjoyable.