Who would you consider a programmer?

[Jimmt]

Since this is the miscellaneous section...
What do you think is the criteria for being a programmer? For example I know some guys who claim to know Java but never practice and have never made anything.

[ReBirth]

1. They made something
2. They know at least two syntaxs/languages
3. They will be mad if you tell them to revising the app
4. However tehy don't bother to rewrite whole app if it already is too mess
5. They love to play game, retro or AAA
6.  hmmm, bad taste on fashion?

These are jokes ofc

[ra4king]

You must wear glasses and be super nerdy. And no, women don't program, so if you tell us you're female, we won't believe you.

Kidding kidding, but seriously.....criteria? Only thing I can think of, if logic and maths doesn't come to you (mostly logic), then this is going to be difficult. You must enjoy programming, enjoy controlling computers, enjoy the POWAH!

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[sproingie]

How to be a programmer:

10 Write Programs
20 GOTO 10

[lhkbob]

1. Look at a site/app/game
2. Think you can do it better
3. ??
4. Profit

[divxdede]

1. When you discover an app or a game, you start by thinking how it was developped
2. When you discover a good app or a good game, you would want to create it before the author

[DruLeeParsec]

Is this about to become a "You may be a programmer if . . ." thread 

You may be a programmer if . . .

While playing a game you find yourself thinking "This would be a fun program to write."
When someone says "Push" you think stacks instead of shopping carts.
When someone says "Pop" you're not thinking about soda.

[ra4king]

Is this about to become a "You may be a programmer if . . ." thread 

You may be a programmer if . . .

While playing a game you find yourself thinking "This would be a fun program to write."
When someone says "Push" you think stacks instead of shopping carts.
When someone says "Pop" you're not thinking about soda.

Oh my god I'm not the only one?!?

[Jimmt]

Lol me too

[UprightPath]

Field does not bring to mind "Corn, wheat, etc."
You get annoyed with people who start lists at '1'.
You've noticed that your typing skill is inversely proportional to the amount of coding you've done in the last several hours.
You doodle state machines, flow charts, etc on napkins while out eating.
You've learned how to explain OOP through metaphor (Extra points if you've got several to help explain it to people with different interests) because at least you get nods instead of just blank looks.

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[ra4king]

I do all of those except the doodling part....eating comes first!

[bach]

How to be a programmer:

10 Write Programs
20 GOTO 10

I miss goto and line numbers.

Well, not really.

[h3ckboy]

I really don't do most of these things, I went through a phase where when I would look at almost anything (movie, game, or even stuff around me) I would think about the code that could accomplish that. It started to drive me crazy though so I stopped.

to be a programmer you just have to have drive, and patience.

sproingie, haha, I dont at all, they make editing existing code impossible...

[StumpyStrust]

hmm.... I found myself looking at a single smoke emitter in MassEffect 3 for about an hour trying to figure out exactly how they did the effect and if I could do something similar...after I figured everything out I close my eyes.

Then right after that I would sit behind cover watching the Cerberus people throw smoke grenades for an hour just to make sure that it really was only a single image that they used for the smoke.  They really were trying to crank out great graphics from consoles by limiting the number of particles for effects. I think I counted about 7-11 smoke images for one smoke effect. Then about 20-something for the fire.

I don't know about what makes you a programmer or not but I do know you might have an affinity for it if you find yourself pausing in every game to look at all the purdy effects thinking, "Could I make something like that?"

[ReBirth]

Is this about to become a "You may be a programmer if . . ." thread 

You may be a programmer if . . .

While playing a game you find yourself thinking "This would be a fun program to write."
When someone says "Push" you think stacks instead of shopping carts.
When someone says "Pop" you're not thinking about soda.

I found Halo series and Puppy games are fun but heck I'm not ready to bloody yet.
"Push" means calling kitty name
"Pop" is a another word of "poop"

So I'm not one.

[sproingie]

I miss goto and line numbers.

Well, not really.

Well sure, my preferred way of saying it now would be:

1	(define programmer () (write-programs) (programmer))

But I admit I didn't start that way

[Evil[1]]

Someone who thinks first and then starts programming, instead of copy-pasting snippets from the web, and then spamming a wellknown IRC channel with stupid questions...

[ra4king]

Someone who thinks first and then starts programming, instead of copy-pasting snippets from the web, and then spamming a wellknown IRC channel with stupid questions...

NO WAY! You're Evil[1] from #lwjgl ? And yup, very true

[deepthought]

someone who has committed him/herself to writing code (job/hobby/open source) it's mostly a mindset.

[Ultroman]

OK, so I'm just throwing this out there...
You are a programmer, if your first programming-experience was instigated by you playing an old NES RPG, thinking "Hey, I can make something like that!", and you then actually did it

But seriously, as an example, some guy programming a computer-controlled mechanical beast in a smithy wouldn't be called a 'programmer', as he's just giving instructions to some software by using a certain protocol, which has been developed by actual programmers.

I'd have to agree with sproingie on this. Someone who writes programs, in whichever form. Games, homepages, applets, enterprise software, simulators, plug-ins for other software, like VSTs for music production or effect plug-ins for Maya or 3D studio MAX or Photoshop and the likes.
Simply put: someone who develops software by writing code.

Some might argue that game designers are also programmers, as they do make programs, only they use diagrams. I am one who does not think of this as programming. I feel that designing is a separate thing, but of course I also do this myself before and during any programming endeavour. It really speeds up the actual programming process.

[gimbal]

The ones I consider good are the people who go beyond the "how". I don't care how good you are at hammering out code, I care only about how good you are about creating a maintainable solution and can explain the reasoning behind the solution.

The ones I consider great are the ones who manage to do the same, in a very hostile environment with lots of pressure and people unwilling/incapable to cooperate.

[Eli Delventhal]

From the dictionary:

A person who writes computer programs.

That's it, 'nuff said.

[Roquen]

Do they qualify if the programs don't compile?

[Riven]

Do they qualify if the programs don't compile?

Yes. A person is still a baker if the bread comes out burnt. He might go out of business, or get laid off, but until then, he's a baker.

[Roquen]

So maybe we should say that: programmers are a dime a bakers dozen?

[Eli Delventhal]

So maybe we should say that: programmers are a dime a bakers dozen?

There are very few people who write computer programs, really. Most people look at me like I'm some kind of wizard because it's so beyond the general populace grasping. And really, isn't it a sort of magic to those who don't understand? I don't know what makes my car go, I just trust that it does. I don't know most of what's behind making my computer hardware go but it does. And somebody knows. That might as well be magic to me.

I'm not saying I couldn't understand if I put in the effort, but the general populace could understand programming if they decided to also. But they don't want to - so we're rare and we get paid well.

[sproingie]

Code that never compiles is not a program.  I'd say a baker who only produces charcoal could only be called so in a performance art sense.  To me, a baker has to occasionally produce actual baked goods.

So then is the art in the performance or the product?  Hmmm, things to ponder.  Might argue now that a philosopher is a programmer who burned out on coding ...

[Riven]

So then is the art in the performance or the product?

To me that seems quite obvious: it's in the performance. If a writer person spends his entire life writing a book and dies while writing the last page. Was he not a writer?

[Cero]

Code that never compiles is not a program.

Dont agree at all. You could only write pseudo code - or just dont mind the details or stuff. It's not about that.

Riven is right - what you do is who you are; has nothing to do with quality or something

[ReBirth]

Code that never compiles is not a program.

In contradiction, let's say you make a game with stencyl or watever that require no keyboard. How about that? I don't think so. The process matter.