Why scare quotes though? Professional programmer just means someone who writes software for a living. Software is your profession... there's no doubt what that

Why scare quotes though? Professional programmer just means someone who writes software for a living. Software is your profession... there's no doubt what that means , is there?? If you do that, you'll have run into this sort of decision very early in your career, and hopefully will understand the best way to handle it, which IMHO just depends on the language (because certain features lead to different optimum solutions) and the culture around it. But sure, I am happy to discuss fundamental topics like this, that's why I am engaging and asking what others think.