Are you a professional programmer?

[Salazaar]

For pure curiousness. Are you a professional programmer? I mean is it your job? And when have you started your journey with programming?
Regards

[jpn]

I wrote my first "hello world" application in 2001 when I started studying information technology at Tampere university of technology. I've been working as a software designer since April 2005. I met Qt about two years ago after we took it into use in a new project at work. I fell in love, immediately..

[DeepDiver]

I started back in the 80s with an Atari ST and OmicronBasic at the age of 14.
It was just cool to say: Yes I can write computer programs!

9 years a started my career as a professional software developer, software engineer, system designer, system architect ..... buzz-word-bingo

Since 2 years I'm self employed and develop cross-platform and distributed software for mid-size companies using linux (debian & kubuntu), windows, ZeroC ICE and - of course - Qt.

[fullmetalcoder]

Jeez! Am I the only fellow over there to whom programming remain just a hobby?

I doubt anyone care but here's how I caught the virus :

When I was about 11, my father bought a small book about C because he had to play a bit with that language at work. I read it and started coding immediatly. Of course it was rubbish (you can't even imagine... goto everywhere, no use of functions, ...) but some concepts were kinda hard to master back then.

Three years later, I got a TI calculator and fell back to programming. Basic-like language soon bored so I learnt assembly and did some decent stuff (considering the hardware and the language used it indeed was an achievement )

Finally I started enjoying C++ (surprinsigly, assembly appeared to help for it taught me a lot about the use (and abuse) of pointers....) but my first steps were a bit disappointing until I stumbled upon Qt 4, about two years ago : it's just SOOOOO addictive!

[marcel]

In '97, in my first highschool year, and the program was written in Pascal.

[Salazaar]

Jeez! Am I the only fellow over there to whom programming remain just a hobby?

Nope, Fmc, you're not alone

[Kumosan]

Please define: 'Professional programmer'.

[Michiel]

You're a professional programmer if programming is your job. As in, you do it professionally.

I've been a professional programmer on and off. At one time I actually did C++/Qt, but this quickly switched to PHP, unfortunately. Right now I'm not one.

I once started with Superlogo when I was 10. Made a small shooting game with it. I quickly switched to Visual Basic, because I didn't know any better. Now C++ is my language of choice.

[wysota]

I'd say a "professional programmer" means that your level of expertise in programming is high, regardless of the source of money you spend for your bread and butter. And also - define "programmer". Is it a person that writes code? Is making analysis programming as well? What if you actually don't get paid for writing the code but it is still part of your daily work? Does maintaining a programming forum make me a professional programmer?

[Salazaar]

I'd say a "professional programmer" means that your level of expertise in programming is high, regardless of the source of money you spend for your bread and butter. And also - define "programmer". Is it a person that writes code? Is making analysis programming as well? What if you actually don't get paid for writing the code but it is still part of your daily work? Does maintaining a programming forum make me a professional programmer?

Hehe I meant professional programmer - person whose job is developing software of something related (as you said for example analyzing code). You might do it professionally, but if it isn't your job, you aren't a professional. i hope I'd made it clear

[Kumosan]

Hehe I meant professional programmer - person whose job is developing software of something related (as you said for example analyzing code). You might do it professionally, but if it isn't your job, you aren't a professional. i hope I'd made it clear

According to your definition I am a professional programmer. Though I like wysota's definition better. Currently I have to work with code, which was also written by a 'professional programmer' (your definition), who should rather has gotten all his fingers broken than given access to a keyboard.

[mnemonic_fx]

It seems most active people in this forum are Qt advanced programmer.

Just to tell my story:

I'm starting to learn serious programming directly in C++ at college (around 20 years old).

But after all those years until my graduation at 22 years old. I've mostly programmed in MATLAB , assembly, and embedded C. Because I'm an electrical engineering student.

After I graduate, I've got a job at startup company in Indonesia using Qt4
And Qt4 is great.., it has beautiful codes.

And I wish Trolltech and its customers would more actively promote the use of Qt in Asia.
Since most job market in Asia still dependent on Micr0s0ft technology.
We need to promote Qt, so we could have a good job market for Qt around Asia.
This would benefit Trolltech and me as a Software Developer (so I would not lose my job).

[Salazaar]

According to your definition I am a professional programmer. Though I like wysota's definition better. Currently I have to work with code, which was also written by a 'professional programmer' (your definition), who should rather has gotten all his fingers broken than given access to a keyboard.

I wouldn't call it being a professional programmer - working with code in that case (just only rewriting it because programmer has broken his fingers) can't be called programming
Regards

[wysota]

Define programming then

[Kumosan]

I wouldn't call it being a professional programmer - working with code in that case (just only rewriting it because programmer has broken his fingers) can't be called programming
Regards

Unfortunately this is what most professional programmers do: Working with other ppls. code. It is more a rare exception to be able to start a new system from scratch.

[Salazaar]

Define programming then

Well, developing software (mostly) using one of programming languages

[wysota]

Define "developing software" then... Is unit tester "developing software"? Is beta-tester "developing software"? Is helpdesk "developing software"? Is a gui designer "developing software"? What about software architects, designers, requirement engineers, etc?

[WinchellChung]

I became interested in computers in 1977 while in college. We programmed on Hollerith punch cards back then. I had a large project (making a 3-D star map) that I was doing with a pocket calculator. Took 15 minutes per star, and with 3,000 stars this was depressing. A friend wrote a quick and dirty Fortran program that did the calculations in no time flat. I was hooked.

Cut my teeth on an Atari 800 in the 1980's, went on to Pascal on the Macintosh/Lisa, then on to C++ on Windows.

I use Qt at work, and PyQt as a hobby.

[Salazaar]

Is unit tester "developing software"?

It depends. If he's just a pure tester, who don't know what is programming, than no. If he tests software to find out what and how to (of course, he thinks about code) improve a feature, than yes.

Is beta-tester "developing software"?

No, he's just testing (non-programming things)

Is helpdesk "developing software"?

What do you mean?

Is a gui designer "developing software"? What about software architects, designers, requirement engineers, etc?

Yes, they are

[marcel]

You'd be surprised to find out that they all are developing software, but of course, not by your definition, which is like 50 years old.

They are part of the software development process(which consists of all those phases, not necessarily in that order), therefore they are developing software, even if some of them do not write actual code.

If he tests software to find out what and how to (of course, he thinks about code) improve a feature, than yes.

A tester usually looks for bugs, not new functionalities or improvements.