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Are there companies that actually distinguish between these roles? For all the ones I've ever worked at, "software engineer" and "programmer" are synonyms. (I'

Are there companies that actually distinguish between these roles? For all the ones I've ever worked at, "software engineer" and "programmer" are synonyms. (I'm aware that there's been some effort to extend the legal significance of the word "engineer" to the software industry, but I'm curious if that difference is actually in practice anywhere today)

Clubber 9y ago
I dunno, it's just a title game. I would guess it's because programmers in the 90s simultaneously had massive hubris and insecurity issues and wanted to be just as respected in the community as actual engineers, but who knows. Engineer invokes a sense of design, but so does programmer. When I started, there was no job where you just coded straight pseudocode specs. Business described the problem the way business does, and you had to convert that into a computer solution. Within that solution, different developers would own various parts of it. I would say the entire process of having coders who design systems and coders that just write code is inherently broken. Businesses want to think of development as prod-ops, but it's more like book publishing. I'm of the mind that if a coder who designs a system in enough detail to write pseudocode, he should just write the application. The better approach is have an architect/lead model subsystems and a general skeleton of the application, then have different teams implement the subsystems. Clearly defined interfaces on all inter-subsystem communications.
user5994461 9y ago
Depends where you live, the distinction is clear where the title of "engineer" is protected.
jcranmer 9y ago
There was definitely a time in the 90's when there was interest in having specialized software engineers/architects produce comprehensive designs for software that code monkeys would be tasked with fulfilling. I wouldn't be surprised if there were places today with strong management bias that thinks of "designing" as high value-add and "coding" as low value-add, and the two tasks as falling under the purview of different individuals.

Clubber 9y ago

I dunno, it's just a title game. I would guess it's because programmers in the 90s simultaneously had massive hubris and insecurity issues and wanted to be just as respected in the community as actual engineers, but who knows. Engineer invokes a sense of design, but so does programmer. When I started, there was no job where you just coded straight pseudocode specs. Business described the problem the way business does, and you had to convert that into a computer solution. Within that solution, different developers would own various parts of it. I would say the entire process of having coders who design systems and coders that just write code is inherently broken. Businesses want to think of development as prod-ops, but it's more like book publishing. I'm of the mind that if a coder who designs a system in enough detail to write pseudocode, he should just write the application. The better approach is have an architect/lead model subsystems and a general skeleton of the application, then have different teams implement the subsystems. Clearly defined interfaces on all inter-subsystem communications.

user5994461 9y ago

Depends where you live, the distinction is clear where the title of "engineer" is protected.

jcranmer 9y ago

There was definitely a time in the 90's when there was interest in having specialized software engineers/architects produce comprehensive designs for software that code monkeys would be tasked with fulfilling. I wouldn't be surprised if there were places today with strong management bias that thinks of "designing" as high value-add and "coding" as low value-add, and the two tasks as falling under the purview of different individuals.