TechnoFile

Engineers, Hackers, & Techies

First, let's start off with the definitions. A programmer is someone who programs, the same way that a writer is someone who writes. The existence of compiled, running code is all that is necessary from a programmer's perspective. A software engineer is someone who solves an engineering problem. There is a very big difference; most software engineers are programmers, but not all programmers are software engineers.

There are a number of good software engineers who just are not interested in programming. Programming for them is a means to an end. Conversely, there were a number of projects where the engineers were more than happy to write a solution, even if doing so didn't actually solve the problem. Typically, the bad engineers would look for a problem they'd already solved and then try to apply that over again.

[excerpt: What makes a good engineer?, Will Sargent, 6/5/03]

See Also: The Programming page

Essays and Papers

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I'm always looking for pointers to interesting articles on Software Engineering, especially in the areas of Design and Analysis, Quality Assurance, Process Improvement, Debugging, or any interesting topics along the lines of the articles and papers listed above. Please send URLs to webmaster@technofile.org. Thanks!