Difference between Software Developer and Software Engineer?

Difference between Software Developer and Software Engineer? 2019

Today, I want to talk about the differences of a software developer and a software engineer. If you want to know more about this topic, please keep watching.

Did you know there's a lot of factors and things that you'll need to overcome to become a programmer that aren't specifically related to coding?

My name is Tim Buchalka and I have put together a series of videos which I call the "Programming Tip of the Day". And basically, each video goes through talking about some of the pitfalls and things that you'll need to overcome to succeed as a programmer, things like overcoming frustration and keeping yourself motivated.

In this series I will also answer common questions about choosing a programming language to learn, questions about your career path and things of that nature. Now there's a lot of other things as well that I'll cover in these videos and I'm also opening the lines for you to tell me what you want me to cover.

Now I've been a programmer for over 35 years so I think I'm real qualified to answer a lot of these questions. So if you do have a question, pop the question in the comments section of this video and I'll do my best to address that in a future video.

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[TheLearnProgrammingChannel]

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[richamericano]

Did you track your logo to your t-shirt? Lol

[johnbspringer]

Software, Developer, Coder and Programmer
These terms had hard distinctions pre-1980, in the days of main-frame computers. In those days the computing profession looked very different from today. Here are some of the differences:

If you wanted time on the Main Frame your department was billed for the total number of CPU cycles that your program required to run to completion. Your program (a.k.a “job”), never ran by itself but was run as part of a batch of other jobs through something known as JCL (Job Control Language). JCL scheduled your job to run at some scheduled time. Also, the resources that your JOB utilized (Modem, printer, tape storage) was also billed to your department. When, your job ran, you did not see the results first hand, but rather the results were saved to a file or printed and you were given the results after usually the next day.. If you are writing software your hand-written software would be submitted for compilation and your compile/run results would be given to you the next day. If you had a type or logic error, you would not know right away until you got your job results back at which time you would have to make the correction and resubmit the job and again for new results.

As you can imaging writing, submitting, fixing and repeat is very tiresome and expensive. To correct this program, a coder was employed who was very experienced with the Main-frame. There were very few of those people in the company because only a select few were allowed access to these very expensive machines. The job of the coder was to type your hand-written script (called a code-sheet) into the main-frame.

Today’s complex program would never have evolved if it was not for the development of the PC by IBM in 1981 (less expensive than main frame) and software interpreters offering instant error reporting. After the release of the personal computer by IBM in the 80s and Microsoft’s Windows operating system, many intelligent displaced workers seeking professional jobs found that programming computers was one of the few white collar high-salary jobs that could be obtained without a college degree. Because computers were becoming so prevalent and there were so few people that understood them, companies were hiring anybody that could program their computers. At this time the role of developer, coder and programmer was eventually filled by one person who was typically just called a computer programmer or software developer – but not an engineer.

Then there came a time when the software programmer/developer became masters of their art and were hired into jobs that were heavily regulated by the government – think, Aerospace and Defense. The defense agencies and NASA had a requirement that only engineers were allowed to work on government contracts. In addition, most insurance companies providing coverage to engineering firms had the same requirement – only engineers were allowed to work on the design of the end-product. This engineering requirement prevented many companies from hiring extremely talented computer programmers/software developers that they needed. To counter act this problem, companies hired software developers/computer programmers and gave them the title of “Engineer”. Further more, because Software Engineer was not an officially regulated type of engineer there were no state recognized exams and license requirements. Of course this pissed of a lot of existing engineers who resented this free assignment of the title “Engineer”, but by the late 90’s this anger had largely passed and the term Software Engineer had become accepted.

But the early 2000’s universities began to cash-in on the software craze and started offering degrees with a B.S in Computer Science. Depending on the University, these degrees often have a heavier math component than any other engineering degree. Think, Partial Diff-Eq, linear algebra, discrete mathematics, spherical trig as well as algorithm development.

Old Terminology

Developer – Translated customer needs and into software requirements for the programmer
Programmer -The designer of the software
Coder - Glorified typist and entrusted of the main frame
Computer Engineer – Electrical engineer who build computer hardware
Software Engineer – Developer + Coder that worked on gov contracts.

New Terminology

Developer = Programmer = Coder = Someone who writes software code that is compiled.
Software Engineer – Developer with a degree in Software Engineering or STEM or has equivalence experience.
Computer Engineer – Electrical engineer who build computer hardware

[mstrock]

What a great explanation, thank you so much.

[ColeTrainPhenomenalcrew]

Thank you for this you just helped me a lot for my major of computer science I’m gonna love software engineering cause it’s kinda best of both worlds with computer hardware which I love too

[ParadoxWorks]

I think your explanation is great! Thank you sir.

[TheMhankel]

Great explanations, Tim! I really like those short videos. #softwaredevelopment #newcareer #newskills #coding

[BoswAkayu]

Yes the terms might be just thrown around or used interchangeably but I totally agree with how you've explained it

[vivekrai]

Thanks Tim for another informative video

[vinay]

Tim believe me i was waiting for your next tip of the day just for asking you the difference between software developer and engineer and what I got you comes up with this video this time you really amazed me...

[MichaelRoberg]

These terms are used interchangeably to be frank. You can have a junior, intermediate, senior software engineer. Which is exactly the same as software developer j, I, s. Coder is very rarely used formally and is perhaps more slang.

[beautifulgorgeous]

Thank you this helped me a lot just gott pick a career

[FindStoicism]

Your shirt logo video effect is tripping me out lol

[multani]

I have your python course on Udemy ! It's really amazing and understanding 😃♥️

[hinkhall]

Even though I have been doing it for 15 years and am pretty good I never called myself an engineer since I have no actual engineer titles nor accreditations . Where I live all engineers joing an association of engineers and I have done no such thing.

At best I earned a comp sci degree and took software engineering courses but that is not enough to make me an engineer. Engineers tend to have rigorously studied mathematics whereas I avoided calculus in university.

In the field, I do the same architecting of infrastructure as other people who hold the engineer title but I personally just go by senior software developer and that is good enough for me.

[rgenericson]

Try getting hired on at Boeing, Raytheon, Intel, Microchip etc. after trying to convince them that you're a software engineer because you know how to build websites and mobile apps. ; -)

[SC-kdln]

That logo came to everyone's mind

[watercat]

OK good to know now that if I'm sftwear engineer I disasing the sftwear that sounds esyer for the sftwer development for my

[dark_evil]

I think these words are used interchangeably!

[Mr.Miller]

Engineers make the architecture of the program. Designing. Implement. Thinking about the ways in which it works with machines. That’s an engineering prospective . Developers build on these things. Also. Pretty soon . Just getting 1 certificate and saying you’re an engineer will soon be obsolete . What are the other soft skills needed for project collaboration and things of that nature?