DEV Community

Discussion on: Don’t Let Anyone Tell You that You’re Not a ‘Real’ Programmer

Collapse
 
ghost profile image
Ghost

First of all, "Real programmers" in xkcd is a mandatory reference for this topic.

To me is as simple as someone who write programs as a main occupation, to me you can be a programmer even if you don't earn money from it but then you're not a "professional" one.

Q:Is someone in IT that uses the command line to access her routers and write scripts also a programmer?

My A: not to me is a thing of focus, just as update my OS doesn't make me a sysadmin

Q: Is an accountant that writes Excel VBA scripts a programmer?
My A: just as before, if you develope accountaint systems yes, if you use Excel as a tool you are not a programmer just like I'm not an accountant because I manage my personal money.

Q: Is someone that exclusively uses WYSIWYG web development tools a programmer?
My A: Are you making a "program" or designing a website? if the later I would call them a designer.

Q: Is an author that writes about people who write code a programmer?
My A: Nope, s(he) is a writer

Q: Is a mathematician that writes pseudocode on paper but never enters it into a computer a programmer?
My A: Nope, pseudocode is not a computer program just like a blueprint is not a house and an architect is not a civil engineer.

To me one of the main problems with this "real programmer" is that people turns a qualitative thing in a quantitative one. Being programmer is not "better" than other profession, is just a label to describe what you do and can do. I don't call myself a lawyer being an engineer not because an lawyer is more or less that an engineer (maybe lawyer was a bad example, ew, just a joke, not sue me) is because it would be a lie, I don't do that job, and actually would be a felony in most places.

Does your IDE/text editor, make your code not run? probably not, so there is no effect in you being or not a programmer.