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  3. Programmer vs software engineer

Programmer vs software engineer

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  • M Munchies_Matt

    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?

    L Offline
    L Offline
    Lost User
    wrote on last edited by
    #33

    I also call myself software engineer, although, if blundering hacks like us would be held up to the standards of civil engineering, we would all be in jail.

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    • L Lost User

      I also call myself software engineer, although, if blundering hacks like us would be held up to the standards of civil engineering, we would all be in jail.

      C Offline
      C Offline
      CPallini
      wrote on last edited by
      #34

      :laugh: True.

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      • L Lost User

        Having a title just means you're still a junior looking for a promotion to the next higher title. My business card doesn't have a title, and I rarely hand one to anybody that does. (Well I do have some old business cards from a previous employer, useful for trade shows where they expect you to provide a card to get in - they're not getting my real card either.)

        Installing Signature... Do not switch off your computer.

        M Offline
        M Offline
        Munchies_Matt
        wrote on last edited by
        #35

        I dont have a business card and it wasnt a question about titles, it was a question about mentality.

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        • C CPallini

          :laugh: True.

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          Jim_Snyder
          wrote on last edited by
          #36

          "Jim, for one million dollars, what is your name!"

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          • M Munchies_Matt

            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?

            P Offline
            P Offline
            Pualee
            wrote on last edited by
            #37

            eh... I'm whatever the job description says. Just tell me the technologies used and the pay scale. Call me whatever you like, just don't call me late for dinner.

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            • M Munchies_Matt

              I dont have a business card and it wasnt a question about titles, it was a question about mentality.

              L Offline
              L Offline
              Lost User
              wrote on last edited by
              #38

              So when you say "So I think of myself as a software engineer, not a programmer" that's not putting a title on yourself/what you do? Okay then, keep going, work hard and you might get there one day.

              Installing Signature... Do not switch off your computer.

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              • M Munchies_Matt

                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?

                C Offline
                C Offline
                Chris Losinger
                wrote on last edited by
                #39

                IDE operator

                image processing toolkits | batch image processing

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                • N Nathan Minier

                  Based on how many coders don't seem to have any idea about SysAdmin or Ops work, I completely disagree.

                  "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." - Benjamin Disraeli

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                  S Offline
                  Slacker007
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #40

                  So, what's wrong with SysAdmin and Operations? Why does it have to be "DevOps"? Oh, that's right, it sounds cooler. :doh:

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                  • P Pualee

                    eh... I'm whatever the job description says. Just tell me the technologies used and the pay scale. Call me whatever you like, just don't call me late for dinner.

                    J Offline
                    J Offline
                    jgakenhe
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #41

                    Pualee wrote:

                    Call me whatever you like, just don't call me late for dinner.

                    That's what Dwight (Robert De Niro) said from the movie This Boys Life.

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                    • M Munchies_Matt

                      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?

                      Mike HankeyM Offline
                      Mike HankeyM Offline
                      Mike Hankey
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #42

                      Code Monkey?

                      Someone's therapist knows all about you!

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                      • R rnbergren

                        I usually introduce myself as a geek. When talking to non geeks. In a company of other geeks I say I do development. I try to leave it at that. Some days I am a strict coder. Some days I am an architect. Some days I am the customer. Most days I am just keep politics from ruining mine and my teams lives. As someone else said. I don't really fit into the current buzzword. I also don't want to be labeled by a buzzword. I can do design work, I can meet with the customer and come up with an overriding solution. I can be put in a corner and given specs and crank out code.

                        To err is human to really mess up you need a computer

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                        PIEBALDconsult
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #43

                        Geeks are circus performers.

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                        • M Munchies_Matt

                          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?

                          R Offline
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                          R Giskard Reventlov
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #44

                          Everyone at the current gig is called a "software engineer". I don't really care much for titles - I just enjoy getting paid to play with computers all day.

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                          • L Lost User

                            So when you say "So I think of myself as a software engineer, not a programmer" that's not putting a title on yourself/what you do? Okay then, keep going, work hard and you might get there one day.

                            Installing Signature... Do not switch off your computer.

                            M Offline
                            M Offline
                            Munchies_Matt
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #45

                            Lopatir wrote:

                            what you do

                            Write kernel code for windows and linux. The most important part of this is the design, the architecture, because if that is wrong the product will never fly. The details, the syntax, I often have to look up, because I keep forgetting it. It is usually because my head gets so deep into complex relational behaviour between components that it just can't hold the bits and pieces for any longer than it needs to.

                            Lopatir wrote:

                            you might get there one day

                            Been doing it for 20 years and get paid very nicely for doing so thankyou! :)

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                            • R R Giskard Reventlov

                              Everyone at the current gig is called a "software engineer". I don't really care much for titles - I just enjoy getting paid to play with computers all day.

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                              Munchies_Matt
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #46

                              It wasnt a 'title' question, but a 'what sort of person are you' question. Either a detail obsessed bit stuffer, ie, programmer, or someone with the wider big view, the designer (which is what I do and regularly make a mess of live coding tests because I use calc to verify all my bitwise logic and google to look up the syntax of the stuff I, regularly, forget. :)

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                              • M Munchies_Matt

                                It wasnt a 'title' question, but a 'what sort of person are you' question. Either a detail obsessed bit stuffer, ie, programmer, or someone with the wider big view, the designer (which is what I do and regularly make a mess of live coding tests because I use calc to verify all my bitwise logic and google to look up the syntax of the stuff I, regularly, forget. :)

                                R Offline
                                R Offline
                                R Giskard Reventlov
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #47

                                Munchies_Matt wrote:

                                'what sort of person are you'

                                Nice

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                                • M Munchies_Matt

                                  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?

                                  J Offline
                                  J Offline
                                  jschell
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #48

                                  Some people who rely on state sponsored licensing for "engineer" have a problem with just throwing that term around loosely. Law to decide if programmers are 'engineers' - Houston Chronicle[^]

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                                  • S Slacker007

                                    So, what's wrong with SysAdmin and Operations? Why does it have to be "DevOps"? Oh, that's right, it sounds cooler. :doh:

                                    P Offline
                                    P Offline
                                    peterkmx
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #49

                                    Sorry for my late reply ... the term has been around for about 10 years, and this is a good summary of its history (https://www.ca.com/us/rewrite/articles/devops/a-short-history-of-devops.html) I guess it depends on many aspects whether or not it is useful. In my case (a senior developer in a SME) it serves well its purpose to describe what I do :) , BR

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                                    • R R Giskard Reventlov

                                      Munchies_Matt wrote:

                                      'what sort of person are you'

                                      Nice

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                                      ZurdoDev
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #50

                                      R. Giskard Reventlov wrote:

                                      Nice

                                      I think we should vote on that. :laugh:

                                      There are two kinds of people in the world: those who can extrapolate from incomplete data. There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

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                                      • M Munchies_Matt

                                        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?

                                        B Offline
                                        B Offline
                                        BillWoodruff
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #51

                                        It's the holes in the roles that I play that make, or break, my day.

                                        «While I complain of being able to see only a shadow of the past, I may be insensitive to reality as it is now, since I'm not at a stage of development where I'm capable of seeing it. A few hundred years later another traveler despairing as myself, may mourn the disappearance of what I may have seen, but failed to see.» Claude Levi-Strauss (Tristes Tropiques, 1955)

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                                        • M Munchies_Matt

                                          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?

                                          S Offline
                                          S Offline
                                          S Douglas
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #52

                                          I tend to call a lot of them keyboard smashers. Pound keys, till something happens. :rolleyes:


                                          Common sense is admitting there is cause and effect and that you can exert some control over what you understand.

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