• @dylanTheDeveloper@lemmy.world
    15•1 year ago

    I got told the difference between a software developer and an engineer is that an engineer factors in a products lifecycle and scalability and communicates this to their team and client

  • @crispy_kilt@feddit.de
    3•1 year ago

    Serious question, not a native speaker: Why do people in the Anglosphere refer to mostly-software companies as tech companies, or to software developers as tech workers?

  • @HowManyNimons@lemmy.world
    9•1 year ago

    I like Computer Programmer. No mistaking it. Developers are people who organise houses to be built. Engineers work on trains. Coders encrypt data. No matter what nonsense word salad it says on my email signature, when I’m at a barbecue I say I’m a computer programmer.

  • @Crackhappy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7•1 year ago

    When people ask me what I do for a living I tell them that I furiously bang on a keyboard until the computer does what I want.

  • @NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
    7•1 year ago

    I’m technically an aerospace engineer, but all I do is code most days. I think it depends highly on what you do, since my job also involves doing things not strictly coding related as well, I always slap the engineer title next to it. If you only code, then it’s more appropriate to say software dev, or programmer. But, again its highly dependent on your role.

    And as other people have mentioned, seems like outside the U.S. the term engineer is a protected title, so my take really only applies within the U.S.

    I would say tho, a lot of programmers in the U.S. do get called software engineers. Just depends on where you go I guess.

    • @Jrockwar@feddit.uk
      2•1 year ago

      I don’t think what you study in your degree is the defining factor. Obviously this is country-specific but I feel you job title isn’t always linked 1:1 to your title.

      I studied Industrial Engineering, which in Spain exists as a degree but not as a job position. Position wise, I’ve been a mechanical design engineer, a manufacturing engineer, an automation engineer, robotics engineer, and these days I’m mostly a software engineer. I’m definitely specialised in engineering, regardless of the tools I’m applying to solve the task at hand.

  • @pulaskiwasright@lemmy.mlEnglish
    5•1 year ago

    Everyone who works on making software is a developer, even people who don’t program at all. people who make art for software work in software development. A “coder” only writes code. It’s more of a task than a job. A software engineer does technical design and probably also codes.

  • shastaxc
    5•1 year ago

    I think typically A, B, C, and F are acceptable to most people. I certainly wouldn’t mind any of those descriptions. D feels antiquated. E is too broad. G just sounds like a hobbyist.

      • shastaxc
        2•1 year ago

        Yeah but the programming is done on a computer and then uploaded to that device. It’s not specific enough of a term anymore. That’s why it feels antiquated. Back in the 80s, most people didn’t know enough about computers to know there were differences in different types of programming, and there were fewer types then too. These days you still don’t need to be too specific unless you’re discussing your role with someone else in the industry but still, if you just say you’re a programmer now, pretty much everyone will know you mean it’s computer programming.

  • @AlexWIWA@lemmy.mlEnglish
    16•1 year ago

    This is my opinion that is basically a compilation of the coworkers I’ve talked to about the subject.

    Depends on the role. Passed senior level most prefer to be called engineers. Those are the people designing the whole system. Software developers are usually more mid level and figure out the specifics of how to design smaller sections of the system. They cut a lot of the detailed tickets and write a lot of infrastructure code.

    Programmer is usually the juniors who never design much and just take tickets and turn them into code.

    When I say senior, mid level, and junior, I’m referring more to the role that you’re fulfilling that day, and not the overall skill level. Engineers will often step in as programmers for more complicated code.

    We usually accept any of the terms though because it’s very rare for someone to not jump between the various tasks depending on what the active project is. And at some companies they only hire seniors and they perform all roles.

    TL;DR: Every software engineer is a developer and programmer, but not every developer is an engineer, and not every programmer is a developer or engineer.