Who is a Programmer?

Internet is full of various stories about programmers nowadays. Who are they and what kind of magic are they doing.  I would like to tell you some words about who programmers are and what their profession is, sometimes it is really interesting, sometimes it happens to be not so cool.

First of all, let’s define what the programming is.  A lot of people think about programming as the science, but, unfortunately there are no strict rules for task resolving and versatile templates, so you can’t really tell that the programming is the science. Others say, the programming is the art, but it can’t be described in one word for sure, because there is not only a creative part in this profession, but there is a routine as well. Unfortunately,  the routine is the most part of it. Steve McConnell, a well-known programmer, defines this profession as:

«…Programming is neither quite the art, nor quite the science. In its usual form it is a kind of  “skill”, which takes a place right in between of the art and the science. This is engineering, based on synergic integration of the art and the science…»

Now let’s find out, what exactly programmers are doing. Yeah, programmers write programs, that’s correct. But what makes a programmer to write a program? First of all, this is the simple curiosity towards new tasks, this is the desire to create and to develop something new, useful and important.  Second of all, it is pride, satisfaction and a feeling that the task is complete and the mission is accomplished. And, finally, the financial side of the question of course.

But, like in any other profession, there is a negative side of the programming as well. The routine is the main one. When the interesting part of architecture constructing, logics building is over and the task is resolved, there comes a moment when you have to write it and to finish it. And this takes the most of the time. During this step lots of young programmers are losing their interest for this profession, and the quality of the code is getting worse and in the end they are getting a low quality product. If a programmer knows how to deal with the routine this shows his professionalism for sure.

In spite of all the difficulties of this profession, many programmers still like their job, getting full satisfaction from it and love it after all! Frederick Brooks, the author of the book «The Mythical Man-Month» describes this profession like this:

 «...First of all, it is a joy of creating something with your own hands. Like a child is happy when making sand castles, like an adult is happy when creating something, especially when he invented this himself. I think this delight is a reflection of God’s delight while creating this world, the delight that is shown in individuality and novelty of each and every leaf and each and every snowflake».