Who here are Programmers

[zombieChan51]

Who here are software engineer

I'm wondering who here is a software engineer for a living (and when I say Programmer, I mean someone who does it for a career and not only as a hobby).

 

[Lindley]

That would be me. C++ mainly, although I use Java as required.

 

[RevDMV]

20+ years worth of crappy code, thank you very much....

Delphi, C# and SQL mostly now. C, C++, VB and various assembly stuff in the past.

 

[Hermiod]

"Programming" is one part of my job as a Software Engineer.

 

[Yoda]

"Programming" is one part of my job as a Software Engineer.

If you run Software Engineer through babelfish to a random language and back, it comes back as 'arrogant programmer'

 

[Hermiod]

"Programming" is one part of my job as a Software Engineer.

If you run Software Engineer through babelfish to a random language and back, it comes back as 'arrogant programmer'

"Programming" is 20% of my job, the degree certificate on my wall at home says I have a Bachelor of Science in "Software Engineering" (First Class with Honours). There's nothing arrogant about that.

 

[Yoda]

"Programming" is 20% of my job, the degree certificate on my wall at home says I have a Bachelor of Science in "Software Engineering" (First Class with Honours). There's nothing arrogant about that.

2nd Lieutenant Jake Jensen, that you?
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIY9rq9_lcw[/yt]

Programming is a mere 5% of my job. 95% is playing Guitar Hero. My degree says that I full comboed "Ramblin' Man" on expert... with honors!

 

[Kataaran]

I do. My job is roughly 90/10 percent design/programing. PHP but increasingly I'm doing more frontend JavaScript.

 

[Hermiod]

<snip Yoda's usual brand of pig ignorant bullshit>

You don't know the difference. I get it.

Software Engineering involves requirements gathering, design, planning, coding, estimation, maintenance, dependency management, resourcing, quality control, testing and a whole lot more.

And yes, I'm proud of my degree and the work I put in to get it. If you have a problem with that I suggest you submit a form 36B to someone who gives a fuck what you think.

 

[Yoda]

[it's called a sense of humor, aka 0% of your job as a Software Engineer]

You don't know the difference. I get it.

Software Engineering involves requirements gathering, design, planning, coding, estimation, maintenance, dependency management, resourcing, quality control, testing and a whole lot more.

Except that nobody has a job where they spend all their time coding, and none planning or testing. The non jackass approach would be to say "Why yes, I make a living programming", but instead you throw the word in quotes like it's going to bite you!

Ahh fuck it... Whatever. Nope, I'm not a programmer either. I'm a 'director of engineering'. Says so on my business card.

And yes, I'm proud of my degree and the work I put in to get it. If you have a problem with that I suggest you submit a form 36B to someone who gives a fuck what you think.

I'll be sure to file whatever the fuck form you're referring to... with honors.

 

[Hermiod]

Except that nobody has a job where they spend all their time coding, and none planning or testing. The non jackass approach would be to say "Why yes, I make a living programming", but instead you throw the word in quotes like it's going to bite you!

Except that would be an inaccurate statement. I make a living as a Software Engineer. Do you get how that's not making a living programming ?

I'll be sure to file whatever the fuck form you're referring to... with honors.

Guess you don't understand how education works either.

 

[Yoda]

Except that would be an inaccurate statement. I make a living as a Software Engineer. Do you get how that's not making a living programming ?

I hereby claim the title of "Forum Message Engineer". I mean, I only spend 20 percent of the time with the actual posting... I spend most of my time doing things like reading other posts to gather requirements for my posts. Then I must plan... things like "what hilarious videos, photos, and smilies can I attach?" I mean, there's a lot that goes into these posts! After I post them I often edit them, you know, to work out the bugs.

I will also accept the term 'Imagineer'.

I'll be sure to file whatever the fuck form you're referring to... with honors.

Guess you don't understand how education works either.

Does it involves lots of 36Bs?

 

[Hermiod]

Does it involves lots of 36Bs?

Nope. It involves you actually knowing anything about the subjects you post about, which you clearly do not.

Read this. Then answer the question - do you see what the difference is ?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Yes, I am a programmer... err... "software engineer," as my job title says. Why Hermoid wants to be so uptight about it, I have no idea. I have no problem saying I program for a living. That's enough for most people to "get" what it is I do.

Way to buck the stereotypes, though, Hermiod! "Arrogant programmer," indeed.

 

[Hermiod]

Yes, I am a programmer... err... "software engineer," as my job title says. Why Hermoid wants to be so uptight about it, I have no idea. I have no problem saying I program for a living. That's enough for most people to "get" what it is I do.

Way to buck the stereotypes, though, Hermiod! "Arrogant programmer," indeed.

There was nothing "uptight" about it until Yoda jumped in.

I was answering the question, do I write code for a living and I gave the answer that I do partially. Yoda apparently doesn't like that and posted his "arrogant programmer" crap. Do you see how being referred to in such a manner might be a little bit insulting ?

Most people outside of the software business don't get what a Software Engineer does all day. You realise that, don't you ?

 

[Jadzia]

I'm not a programmer professionally, but I do enjoy programming, and I do do some as a hobby.

I've always been interested in computational maths/physics, and at a young age I became aware that computers have this a great ability to simulate real world systems through some kind of abstract model.

So I gradually learned how we can do things like predicting where the planets are going to be, or the trajectory of a billiard ball, or the future populations of two interacting/competing species, or (ignoring chaos) the weather. I sometimes take a few minutes to contemplate this "predicting the future" thing, because it is something quite special in the grand scheme of things. In the past it would have been called divination.

In recent years, I've become more interested in computer games, as there is an obvious overlap between them and simulations. I don't enjoy playing computer games much at all, but I do enjoy trying to design/make them. I feel it's creative enough to allow self expression, and complex enough to be keep me mentally stimulated, which suits me quite nicely as a little hobby.

I think my maths background counts a lot in my favour where games programming is concerned.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Yes, I am a programmer... err... "software engineer," as my job title says. Why Hermoid wants to be so uptight about it, I have no idea. I have no problem saying I program for a living. That's enough for most people to "get" what it is I do.

Way to buck the stereotypes, though, Hermiod! "Arrogant programmer," indeed.

There was nothing "uptight" about it until Yoda jumped in.

I was answering the question, do I write code for a living and I gave the answer that I do partially. Yoda apparently doesn't like that and posted his "arrogant programmer" crap. Do you see how being referred to in such a manner might be a little bit insulting ?

Most people outside of the software business don't get what a Software Engineer does all day. You realise that, don't you ?

Which is exactly why you might as well tell a lay person you program for a living. It's not precise, but it's close enough to get the point across. They have no idea what a "software engineer" does.

It's like having the guy at the auto shop tell you, "I'm an ASE-certified automotive engineer." Well, no, everyone else is just going to think he's a mechanic, and that's close enough for Joe Sixpack to get the idea.

How much sense does it make to insist on "software engineer" when you've already admitted lay people don't know what that means? You might as well speak gibberish to them!

 

[Lindley]

My job description is also "Software Engineer", actually, although my degree was in Computer Science.

Basically that means I'm flexible. I spend a lot of my time writing research code, characterized by advanced algorithms and a reduced emphasis on releasability; but if necessary I can get in on the design action too. Recently I spent a couple of months doing nothing but writing and refining design documents for a large DARPA program my company is working.

Even on the research side, I think I put more effort into code maintainability than some of my associates. I'd like to think I bring a moderating, high-level design influence to what might otherwise be a mess of low-level, hand-optimized C code.

 

[Hermiod]

Which is exactly why you might as well tell a lay person you program for a living. It's not precise, but it's close enough to get the point across. They have no idea what a "software engineer" does.

It's like having the guy at the auto shop tell you, "I'm an ASE-certified automotive engineer." Well, no, everyone else is just going to think he's a mechanic, and that's close enough for Joe Sixpack to get the idea.

How much sense does it make to insist on "software engineer" when you've already admitted lay people don't know what that means? You might as well speak gibberish to them!

I would still say I'm a Software Engineer and if Joe Sixpack is genuinely interested I might explain it in simple terms. To use your example, if I was being really specific I would have said I was a Mobile Operating Systems, Graphics and User Interface Frameworks Software Engineer or Senior Software Engineer or Team Lead stroke Senior Software Engineer or any of the other ways I could have been more specific - I didn't.

Joe Sixpack may not even know what "programmer" means either so the term may be just as useless to him.

There's nothing "arrogant" about using something that is both your job title and the title of the degree with which you got that job.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

My job description is also "Software Engineer", actually, although my degree was in Computer Science.

Basically that means I'm flexible. I spend a lot of my time writing research code, characterized by advanced algorithms and a reduced emphasis on releasability; but if necessary I can get in on the design action too. Recently I spent a couple of months doing nothing but writing and refining design documents for a large DARPA program my company is working.

Even on the research side, I think I put more effort into code maintainability than some of my associates. I'd like to think I bring a moderating, high-level design influence to what might otherwise be a mess of low-level, hand-optimized C code.

I work on a real-time pharmacy benefit management system. I would have expected it to be fairly simple, but no, it's enormously complex. It has to track drugs, members, coverages, doctors, pharmacies, etc. and so forth. This wouldn't be so bad, except it has evolved over 20 years and has grown to enormous complexity. It has virtually no documentation, the code is not black-boxed or organized in any consistent way, and we have to fix bugs on the live system while it's running. I can already feel the gray hairs sprouting.

Since I started working here, I've implemented daily source control exports so we can better track code changes, but that's only a start. How this system has survived so long in this condition, I have no idea.