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Muhammad Asif
Muhammad Asif

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Difference Between A Developer And A Programmer

If you’re hiring technical staff for your company, you may be asking, what is the difference between a developer, a programmer in an engineer?

Developers have a larger scope of responsibility

The basic difference between a developer and a programmer is the scope of their work.
Developers are more involved with and have a greater understanding of the full project scope.
Programmers are involved in a specific part of the project — coding.

Programmers are also known as engineers and coders

A programmer’s job includes writing code, testing, and fixing bugs.
A programmer converts a design into instructions that a computer can follow. These instructions are coded using one of many programming languages. They usually know several of these languages including Java, C#, PHP, Oracle, SQL Server, JavaScript, etc.

Specialized programmers focus on one type of programming. General programmers write code for many types of software.
Typically, programmers work in groups or teams under a senior programmer (team leader) that supervises their work.

Types of computer programmers

Application programmers: write programs for specific tasks eg. programs to track inventory at a factory
System programmers: write programs to maintain computer systems software eg. operating systems, database management systems
AI/Machine Learning Engineers
Game programmers
*Mobile developers *

Developers (also referred to as software engineers)

Their job responsibilities include writing code, but they also contribute to many other aspects of the project/software development process. Along with coding, a developer's tasks often include:

software design
development
research
writing documentation and specs
maintenance
testing software
core implementation
analysis

Basically, a developer is a programmer first and foremost but with larger scope of responsibility for other aspects of the project.

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