53 ms·

Personally I think engineer is a better term than "programmer".

• jfb 17y ago
  I disagree. I don't find many similarities between what I do and what a "real engineer" does. I do not consider myself an engineer; I write software. Nowhere in the 18 years I've been doing this for money have I met anybody that could explain what software engineering really is. Without a definition, the term to me is meaningless.
  • tjpick 17y ago
    the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software. That's what they'll teach you at engineering school. Not everyone who is writing software is engineering.
• alextgordon 17y ago
  Engineers precisely specify a problem and then build a solution that's correct to within a tolerance. I'm afraid I don't see the resemblance to programming.
  • troystribling 17y ago
    A very precise definition of an engineer? Engineers build tools. Artists build amusements. Scientists build ideas. Programmer = Engineer.
    • njharman 17y ago
      By those definitions I'd consider Software Development as Sciartiginering. It's easier to say developer though.
      • troystribling 17y ago
        I have done all three and the motivations and results of each are distinct. If you are Sciartiginering you are not building software. Maybe ASCII art?
  • donaq 17y ago
    That depends on the program, I suppose. Some programs require more engineering than others. I think you could make a very good argument for the programmers at Google being engineers.
  • argv_empty 17y ago
    You could describe programming that way too, though the "within a tolerance" would probably have to be about input coverage rather than output/behavior.
• deleted 17y ago
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