I'd tend to disagree with that.
Other fields have people who do things in different ways, and I can see direct parallels.
A good electrician can often build most of the things an electrical engineer can using experience and practical knowledge, but they are not doing the same thing. A good electrical engineer will apply engineering concepts and practices to the design of a thing whereas an electrician will apply skilled trades concepts and practices to the design of a thing, and they are different things.
A good carpenter can build most of the things a structural engineer can using experience and practical knowledge, but they are not dong the same either.
Same goes for a good industrial mechanic vs. a mechanical engineer.
The words are typically misused in much the same way the term "engineer" is massively overused so people doing other types of work feel better, but people who know, know.
In my view, a software engineer will be using engineering concepts and practices to design software where a software developer will be using experience and practical knowledge. I'd expect there to be mutually exclusive realms that make sense for both -- software engineers would create novel algorithms or architectures using rigorous methods, software developers would use existing algorithms with practiced efficiency.
I guess keep in mind I live in a region where the word "engineer" is protected harder than any other place on the planet, so my point of view is tempered by that.
Other fields have people who do things in different ways, and I can see direct parallels.
A good electrician can often build most of the things an electrical engineer can using experience and practical knowledge, but they are not doing the same thing. A good electrical engineer will apply engineering concepts and practices to the design of a thing whereas an electrician will apply skilled trades concepts and practices to the design of a thing, and they are different things.
A good carpenter can build most of the things a structural engineer can using experience and practical knowledge, but they are not dong the same either.
Same goes for a good industrial mechanic vs. a mechanical engineer.
The words are typically misused in much the same way the term "engineer" is massively overused so people doing other types of work feel better, but people who know, know.
In my view, a software engineer will be using engineering concepts and practices to design software where a software developer will be using experience and practical knowledge. I'd expect there to be mutually exclusive realms that make sense for both -- software engineers would create novel algorithms or architectures using rigorous methods, software developers would use existing algorithms with practiced efficiency.
I guess keep in mind I live in a region where the word "engineer" is protected harder than any other place on the planet, so my point of view is tempered by that.
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Sort of by definition, yes.
Like I said, different geographical areas tend to misrepresent different types of jobs as engineering jobs for various reasons (you can often pay someone in prestige for example), and some engineers suck at engineering so they should be doing a thing but aren't, but at least in principle that's how things should be.
Like I said, different geographical areas tend to misrepresent different types of jobs as engineering jobs for various reasons (you can often pay someone in prestige for example), and some engineers suck at engineering so they should be doing a thing but aren't, but at least in principle that's how things should be.