"Programmer" used to be the title that goes with using a keypunch to turn a flowchart into a deck to submit to the operator. That job had low status because it

"Programmer" used to be the title that goes with using a keypunch to turn a flowchart into a deck to submit to the operator. That job had low status because it sucked, for the same reason that spending all day typing someone else's words sucked. Eventually we could afford to automate that job away. "Systems analyst" and "programmer/analyst" are the titles for independent design work we should be comparing to today's developers.