• NightAuthor@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    59
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    Programmers aren’t necessarily engineers tho, software engineers are, but not all programmers are software engineers. Even then, lots of people are trained as SEs and then just end up programmers.

    • RojoSanIchiban@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      51
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      “Software engineers aren’t real engineers because they don’t work on physical engines.”

      -An absolute dumbass telling me this to my face years ago while literally designing a software solution for (hardware) engineers on a manufacturing line

      • NightAuthor@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        29
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Programmer just writes code.

        Software engineer designs the system that is to be coded.

        It’s like the difference between an architect and a construction worker.

        Edit: or maybe structural engineer and construction worker would be better. Architect may be more like a UX designer.

          • Riskable@programming.dev
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            My work says I’m a, “security architect II”. I believe he physical world manifestation of that would be… the guy that plans where the security guards should stand? Actually, I’m “II” so I’m probably more like the guy who gets escalated to when the guys that do do that need help 🤷

      • herrvogel@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        1 year ago

        Programming is just one part of the whole process of creating software. There’s more than just writing code. There’s also planning, design, architecture, testing, deployment, maintenance, etc. All that is engineering. Unsurprisingly, people with software engineering training tend to have a more complete idea as to what goes into it all.

      • Bye@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        Let’s say I’m a carpenter, and occasionally I open up a cad program and draw up a wrench or lathe chuck and have it cut out of sheet steel. Yes, I did some engineering but I’m not really an engineer.

        Likewise let’s say I’m an artist. Maybe I write code now and then to program my automatic paint mixer or whatever.

        Code to build something: engineer

        Code to use something: programmer

      • eestileib@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        To me, if you wrote/maintain/design a scaled system with uptime and latency requirements, that’s a software engineer.

        If you’re laying out buttons and implementing business logic, you’re a programmer. (This was me).

    • mathematicalMagpie@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      The title of Engineer is heavily protected in some countries. You’d get the title of Developer or Analyst or something along those lines.

  • ghu@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    49
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Meanwhile ddg search suggestions:

    • Programmers are also human
    • Programmers are wizards