The Difference Between A Developer, A Programmer And A Computer Scientist

And where does Software Engineer fit into this picture?

Engineering is the practical application of science, so software engineers would pretty much fall into your programmer category.

You might subdivide the programmers into engineers and hackers, depending on the rigor of their process. That is, the level of discipline in the applied techniques, and how intentionally they are used. By that definition, the software craftsmen would be a subset of the software engineers. Perhaps not in title or preferred types of organisation, but in their way of working with code.

Does this make sense?

I’ve never actually thought about the titles of people who do software, though I’ve thought heavily about what is software. Here is my take on that subject.

http://www.straylightrun.net/2009/06/13/what-is-software/

Now that I re-read it, I guess I do talk about titles a bit. In any case, I love this topic. Thanks for the post.

Hi Alan,

Very nice post! I’ve always though of “Computer Scientist” as the guy who comes up with the new pattern idea, works on C/C++ and implements the newest image library with these new set of shadows and vectors.

The developer takes that and build these set of apps that the engineer thinks “rrrr why I didn’t think of it in that way?” the developer uses the patterns in XYZ language and adds it’s own flavor.

I think you should a Venn Diagram to this post…

This is exactly why I’ve been calling myself a developer for the past few years.
I have no degree.
I am not a programmer in the hard core sense.
I take peoples ideas or designs, and develop them using programming and pre-built software w/ graphics and lots of coffee.

and yes I have time to score chicks ;)

Haha, true true :)

Definitely a front end developer actually although I like to think of myself as an entrepreneur! :-)

While there are definitely some overlaps in our opinions, in my experience, “Developers” is another word for “Software Engineers” – people with a breadth of experience, an ability to interact with customers, managers, and other team members, and experience with tools like Mercurial and Jira. Programmers are people who learn how to program from a book in 21 days, and some can create amazing programs, but they are removed from building applications or products.

I’ve followed up on your article with a post of my own, at http://blog.davekoelle.com/2010/03/difference-between-computer-scientist.html

there are computer scientists from school are those who, basically, become code astronauts. they never get to write a line of code because they get dazzled by the millions of ways that the job can be done (see architecture astronaut).
then you have the software engineer who, according to the college curriculums I’ve seen, comes out with just being able to write a ‘clear’ spec, but in my experience, should be or deals with the software development PROCESS which includes stuff like implementation of enterprise services like (i.e.) MSMQ, (i.e.) couchDb, continuous integration, bug tracker, (and less like, but importantly) flowcharts, use cases, etc.
then, you have the programmer, who is concerned with the implementation of all of the above and as a senior programmer becomes more involved or aware of design patterns. a good programmer does not really get his dick hard about whether his code looks like the template pattern or a poor man’s template pattern. The good computer programmer knows that first you get it to work and then you refactor (maybe see duct-tape programmer with a grain of salt).
By the above definitions I don’t see how you can be an engineer of the process without being in the trenches programming first. Therefore, software engineering in college is bullshit.
Finally, the architect is the software engineer and computer programmer. he’s gotten to a point that can’t be reached by unless he’s been both a software engineer and a computer programmer. He might be a little below the software engineer in that he defines a pattern that can be a cookie-cutter pattern for the programmers in the team to follow and learn from to follow in similar features throughout the application but he does not give a shit about writing the shit down on paper or graphs or any of that bullshit. As a matter of fact the ‘engineer’ from school should consult with the architect as to whether the shit is plausible or not.
i also need to throw in there that engineering (i might need some backup here) is that which evaluates the tradeoffs between cost, quality, and price to get the job done.
a developer is that dude who works with the business to develop the product from the group up, somewhat akin to a real estate developer. Again, I don’t see how a good developer can justify his existence without being in the trenches first.

Nice Article! I was also thinking of these differences since I was in my 2nd year in college as a Computer Science Student defending it to my fellow students but they don’t seem to see what I meant to tell them.

Superficially, I’m a developer because that’s where I work. But I’m a computer scientist at heart because I love algorithms, theories and the like. I enjoy reading the proofs and their intricacies. I also like imagining my own version of those algorithms and try to prove them. But I would like doing it in full time as a researcher because, in actuality, my personal dream is to create my own thesis or paper under my name discussing a computer science subject. I’m a fan of Alan Turing and several Computer Theorists and their works.

Which degree program offers you access to become a programmer, developer, scientist.? I guest its cs. So they are all related b.sc&m.sc(programmer and developer) p.hd(programmer, developer and scientiest) cs degree gives u plat form for all even software enginnering. So it depends on where u major and what u do. Am a programmer and also a developer. All to profesional level, holds my b.sc m.sc in cs. Thoug u need some raw knowledge(pratical knowlegde outside school)and certifications, to get the real deal. All will give u what u may need in lyf. Nice article

Thank you for this. It was very informative and helped me to try and understand what my course curriculum was actually trying to tell me. I was wondering if you would/could recommend an online school to become a programmer?

I think you should add a fourth category of “Software Craftsman”… They would be very similar to your definition of Programmer but they apply their knowledge like a developer. They are very passionate about their 9-5 job as well as side projects, etc.

Maybe only I can see that difference, just my two sense…

I actually agree with you, those are very nice categories that cover most of the people in the industry. Of course they are simplified, but well, they are just categories, and there are Swedish people who are African American, if you want accuracy, you need to have as many categories as there are people. And yeah, some people don’t work under the same title that define them as a coder.

I think I myself fall in the category of a programmer, who would like to be a bit more of a developer. I love going into detail with code, refining every stupid space to their right place and crap like that. I enjoy making open source modules and making really obscure coding solutions that make other people tear their eyes out, but I just love how they look, and their cleverness. I tear my eyes out when I see my old code or some architect fella’s 50 file 10k-liner class mess that could’ve been a three-liner, and I really enjoy demo scene and all those things that are sometimes perceived as nerdy perversions.

But on the other hand, I’m pretty open and outgoing person, and I really don’t look like a programmer, I actually look more like a musician, which I also am. But still, I’m pretty much used to just coding alone, so I’d like to develop (program?) my communication skills to achieve better results in team projects. But I’m 22, so it’s not too late.

A nice article, made me reflect on myself and on the focus of my career.

My only correction would be “An Architect is just a fancy title for an overpaid developer with zero accountability.”

I think you did well on identifying the distinctions between the 3. I’d say I am more of a programmer, evolving into a developer. I first started programming BASIC in 1994 when I was 14 and now I like to find new ways to exploit whatever language (Ruby/Java) I’m working with while solving problems I come across in the clearest way possible. I am a stickler for things such as indentation, naming conventions, clean/maintainable code, DRY, etc… I am somewhat of an un-official mentor where I work to the “green” programmers so that they can learn about important topics early on. About a year ago, I started work on my own maven archetype/framework where I integrate Spring (Security), Vaadin/JPAContainer, JPA/Hibernate, et al… but haven’t really hammered at it for a minute. This is eventually going to be one of my flagship projects. Despite the fact that I do not have a degree (I did go to college, though!), I think I’ve done pretty well for myself. I’ve come to the realization that a degree is good if you wanna get rich working for someone else, but you don’t really need one when working for yourself.

I disagree with your definition of a computer scientist, not wholly, but still enough to post a comment. I also feel you left out one crucial group: hackers, but more about that later.

Firstly, the computer scientists. There are possibly degrees of computer scientist and I believe that one is the general comp sci grad of which you speak, who generally builds systems themselves to see how they work, rarely use frameworks or boilerplates. They prefer to pick it apart themselves rather than just have it handed to them. They write less emergent code and more building-block code. Then there’s the second degree of computer scientist, the ones who don’t have a bachelor’s or master’s, but a doctorate in comp sci; the sort of person who has dedicated their lives to advancing the actual science of programming. They normally write huge research software like Neural-nets, genetic algorithms and other sorts of software that are purely experimental. Computer scientists also like writing their own languages and toolchains for them. They’re the sort of people who write esolangs like Brainfuck, and some more useful languages like Scala.

Now hackers. I certainly don’t mean those snot-nosed skiddies that you see in the headlines nowadays, breaking into poorly protected sites with simple SQL injections or brute-force attacks on FTP ports. I’m talking about the kind of people who write cracks and hacks for software that involves disassembling the native binaries and re-writing them in C for the hell of it, or the authors of extremely advanced malicious code like stuxnet. The sort of people who LIVE in assembly, know the entire x86 assembly instruction listing and exactly which one to use. Hackers like ASM, C, and Perl.

good