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Occupation | |
---|---|
Names | Computer Programmer |
Occupation type | Profession |
Activity sectors | Information technology, Software industry |
Description | |
Competencies | Writing and debugging computer code |
Education required | Varies from apprenticeship to bachelor's degree, or self-taught |
A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code – someone with skill in computer programming.
The professional titles software developer and software engineer are used for jobs that require a programmer.
Generally, a programmer writes code in a computer language and with an intent to build software that achieves some goal.
Sometimes a programmer or job position is identified by the language used or target platform. For example, assembly programmer , web developer .
The job titles that include programming tasks have differing connotations across the computer industry and to different individuals. The following are notable descriptions.
A software developer primarily implements software based on specifications and fixes bugs. Other duties may include reviewing code changes and testing. To achieve the required skills for the job, they might obtain a computer science or associate degree, attend a programming boot camp or be self-taught.
A software engineer usually is responsible for the same tasks as a developer plus broader responsibilities of software engineering including architecting and designing new features and applications, targeting new platforms, managing the software development lifecycle (design, implementation, testing, and deployment), leading a team of programmers, communicating with customers, managers and other engineers, considering system stability and quality, and exploring software development methodologies.
Sometimes, a software engineer is required to have a degree in software engineering, computer engineering, or computer science. Some countries legally require an engineering degree to be called engineer. [1] [2] [3]
British countess and mathematician Ada Lovelace is often considered to be the first computer programmer. She authored an algorithm, which was published in October 1842, for calculating Bernoulli numbers on the Charles Babbage analytical engine. [4] Because the machine was not completed in her lifetime, she never experienced the algorithm in action.
In 1941, German civil engineer Konrad Zuse was the first person to execute a program on a working, program-controlled, electronic computer. [5] From 1943 to 1945, per computer scientist Wolfgang K. Giloi and AI professor Raúl Rojas et al., Zuse created the first, high-level programming language, Plankalkül. [6] [7]
Members of the 1945 ENIAC programming team of Kay McNulty, Betty Jennings, Betty Snyder, Marlyn Wescoff, Fran Bilas and Ruth Lichterman have since been credited as the first professional computer programmers. [8] [9]
The first company founded specifically to provide software products and services was the Computer Usage Company in 1955. Before that time, computers were programmed either by customers or the few commercial computer manufacturers of the time, such as Sperry Rand and IBM. [10]
The software industry expanded in the early 1960s, almost immediately after computers were first sold in mass-produced quantities. Universities, governments, and businesses created a demand for software. Many of these programs were written in-house by full-time staff programmers; some were distributed between users of a particular machine for no charge, while others were sold on a commercial basis. Other firms, such as Computer Sciences Corporation (founded in 1959), also started to grow. Computer manufacturers soon started bundling operating systems, system software and programming environments with their machines; the IBM 1620 came with the 1620 Symbolic Programming System and FORTRAN. [11]
The industry expanded greatly with the rise of the personal computer (PC) in the mid-1970s, which brought computing to the average office worker. In the following years, the PC also helped create a constantly growing market for games, applications and utility software. This resulted in increased demand for software developers for that period of time. [12]
Computer programmers write, test, debug, and maintain the detailed instructions, called computer programs, that computers must follow to perform their functions. Programmers also conceive, design, and test logical structures for solving problems by computer. Many technical innovations in programming — advanced computing technologies and sophisticated new languages and programming tools — have redefined the role of a programmer and elevated much of the programming work done today. Job titles and descriptions may vary, depending on the organization. [13]
Programmers work in many settings, including corporate information technology (IT) departments, big software companies, small service firms and government entities of all sizes. Many professional programmers also work for consulting companies at client sites as contractors. Licensing is not typically required to work as a programmer, although professional certifications are commonly held by programmers. [13] Programming is considered a profession. [14] [15] [16]
Programmers' work varies widely depending on the type of business for which they are writing programs. For example, the instructions involved in updating financial records are very different from those required to duplicate conditions on an aircraft for pilots training in a flight simulator. Simple programs can be written in a few hours. More complex ones may require more than a year of work, while others are never considered 'complete' but rather are continuously improved as long as they stay in use. In most cases, several programmers work together as a team under a senior programmer's supervision.[ citation needed ]
Programming editors, also known as source code editors, are text editors that are specifically designed for programmers or developers to write the source code of an application or a program. Most of these editors include features useful for programmers, which may include color syntax highlighting, auto indentation, auto-complete, bracket matching, syntax check, and allows plug-ins. These features aid the users during coding, debugging and testing. [17]
The examples and perspective in this section deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject.(December 2010) |
According to BBC News, 17% of computer science students could not find work in their field six months after graduation in 2009 which was the highest rate of the university subjects surveyed while 0% of medical students were unemployed in the same survey. [18]
After the crash of the dot-com bubble (1999–2001) and the Great Recession (2008), many U.S. programmers were left without work or with lower wages. [19] [20] In addition, enrollment in computer-related degrees and other STEM degrees (STEM attrition) [21] in the US has been dropping for years, especially for women, [22] which, according to Beaubouef and Mason, [23] could be attributed to a lack of general interest in science and mathematics and also out of an apparent fear that programming will be subject to the same pressures as manufacturing and agriculture careers. For programmers, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Outlook originally predicted a growth for programmers of 12 percent from 2010 to 2020 [24] and thereafter a decline of -7 percent from 2016 to 2026, a further decline of -9 percent from 2019 to 2029, a decline of -10 percent from 2021 to 2031. [13] and then a decline of -11 percent from 2022 to 2032. [25] Since computer programming can be done from anywhere in the world, companies sometimes hire programmers in countries where wages are lower. [13] However, for software developers BLS projects for 2019 to 2029 a 22% increase in employment, from 1,469,200 to 1,785,200 jobs with a median base salary of $110,000 per year. This prediction is lower than the earlier 2010 to 2020 predicted increase of 30% for software developers. [26] [27] [20] Though the distinction is somewhat ambiguous, software developers engage in a wider array of aspects of application development and are generally higher skilled than programmers, making outsourcing less of a risk. [28] [29] Another reason for the decline for programmers is their skills are being merged with other professions, such as developers, as employers increase the requirements for a position over time. Then there is the additional concern that recent advances in artificial intelligence might impact the demand for future generations of Software professions. [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36]
Software engineering is an engineering approach to software development. A practitioner, called a software engineer, applies the engineering design process to develop software.
A statistician is a person who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors.
Computer engineering is a branch of computer science and electronic engineering that integrates several fields of computer science and electronic engineering required to develop computer hardware and software. Computer engineering is referred to as computer science and engineering at some universities.
Petroleum engineering is a field of engineering concerned with the activities related to the production of hydrocarbons, which can be either crude oil or natural gas. Exploration and production are deemed to fall within the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry. Exploration, by earth scientists, and petroleum engineering are the oil and gas industry's two main subsurface disciplines, which focus on maximizing economic recovery of hydrocarbons from subsurface reservoirs. Petroleum geology and geophysics focus on provision of a static description of the hydrocarbon reservoir rock, while petroleum engineering focuses on estimation of the recoverable volume of this resource using a detailed understanding of the physical behavior of oil, water and gas within porous rock at very high pressure.
Plankalkül is a programming language designed for engineering purposes by Konrad Zuse between 1942 and 1945. It was the first high-level programming language to be designed for a computer.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics and serves as a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System. The BLS collects, processes, analyzes, and disseminates essential statistical data to the American public, the U.S. Congress, other Federal agencies, State and local governments, business, and labor representatives. The BLS also serves as a statistical resource to the United States Department of Labor, and conducts research measuring the income levels families need to maintain a satisfactory quality of life.
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values, and general behavior of societies. Linguistic anthropology studies how language affects social life, while economic anthropology studies human economic behavior. Biological (physical), forensic and medical anthropology study the biological development of humans, the application of biological anthropology in a legal setting and the study of diseases and their impacts on humans over time, respectively.
Software engineering professionalism is a movement to make software engineering a profession, with aspects such as degree and certification programs, professional associations, professional ethics, and government licensing. The field is a licensed discipline in Texas in the United States, Engineers Australia(Course Accreditation since 2001, not Licensing), and many provinces in Davao.
Software engineers form a noticeable part of the workforce around the world. There are an estimated 26.9 million professional software engineers in the world as of 2022, up from 21 million in 2016.
The Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) System is a United States government system for classifying occupations. It is used by U.S. federal government agencies collecting occupational data, enabling comparison of occupations across data sets. It is designed to cover all occupations in which work is performed for pay or profit, reflecting the current occupational structure in the United States. The 2018 SOC includes 867 detailed occupations.
The history of programming languages spans from documentation of early mechanical computers to modern tools for software development. Early programming languages were highly specialized, relying on mathematical notation and similarly obscure syntax. Throughout the 20th century, research in compiler theory led to the creation of high-level programming languages, which use a more accessible syntax to communicate instructions.
In computer science, automatic programming is a type of computer programming in which some mechanism generates a computer program to allow human programmers to write the code at a higher abstraction level.
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Frances Elizabeth Holberton was an American computer scientist who was one of the six original programmers of the first general-purpose electronic digital computer, ENIAC. The other five ENIAC programmers were Jean Bartik, Ruth Teitelbaum, Kathleen Antonelli, Marlyn Meltzer, and Frances Spence.
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Customer service representatives, customer service advisors, customer service agents, or customer service associates are employees who interact with customers to handle and resolve complaints, process orders, and provide information about an organization’s products and services. They may work in an office with a call center or in retail. Customer service representatives answer questions or requests from customers or the public. They typically provide services by phone, but some also interact with customers face to face, by email or text, via live chat, and through social media. Qualifications include good communication, problem-solving, and computer skills.
A systems analyst, also known as business technology analyst, is an information technology (IT) professional who specializes in analyzing, designing and implementing information systems. Systems analysts assess the suitability of information systems in terms of their intended outcomes and liaise with end users, software vendors and programmers in order to achieve these outcomes. A systems analyst is a person who uses analysis and design techniques to solve business problems using information technology. Systems analysts may serve as change agents who identify the organizational improvements needed, design systems to implement those changes, and train and motivate others to use the systems.
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GitHub Copilot is a code completion tool developed by GitHub and OpenAI that assists users of Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, Neovim, and JetBrains integrated development environments (IDEs) by autocompleting code. Currently available by subscription to individual developers and to businesses, the generative artificial intelligence software was first announced by GitHub on 29 June 2021, and works best for users coding in Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Ruby, and Go. In March 2023 GitHub announced plans for "Copilot X", which will incorporate a chatbot based on GPT-4, as well as support for voice commands, into Copilot.
Computer programmers often take courses and seek certifications to enter the field and stay current in their skills in this ever-evolving profession.
Explore this profession and discover how you can thrive in a computer programming career.
Explore this profession and discover how you can thrive in a computer programming career.