A programmer, computer programmer, or coder is a person who writes computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist who writes code for many kinds of software. One who practices or professes a formal approach to programming may also be known as a programmer analyst. A programmer's primary computer language (C, C++, Java, Lisp, Python etc.) is often prefixed to the above titles, and those who work in a web environment often prefix their titles with web. The term programmer can be used to refer to a software developer, software engineer, computer scientist, or software analyst. However, members of these professions typically^{[citation needed]} possess other software engineering skills, beyond programming; for this reason, the term programmer is sometimes considered an insulting or derogatory oversimplification of these other professions^{[citation needed]}. This has sparked much debate amongst developers, analysts, computer scientists, programmers, and outsiders who continue to be puzzled at the subtle differences in the definitions of these occupations.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

British countess and mathematician Ada Lovelace is popularly credited as history's first programmer, as she was the first to express an algorithm intended for implementation on a computer, Charles Babbage's analytical engine, in October 1842, intended for the calculation of Bernoulli numbers.^[6] Her work never ran because Babbage's machine was never completed to a functioning standard in her time; the first programmer to successfully run a program on a functioning modern electronically based computer was pioneer computer scientist Konrad Zuse, who achieved this feat in 1941. The ENIAC programming team, consisting of Kay McNulty, Betty Jennings, Betty Snyder, Marlyn Wescoff, Fran Bilas and Ruth Lichterman were the first regularly working programmers.^[7][8]

International Programmers' Day is celebrated annually on January 7.^[9] In 2009, the government of Russia decreed a professional annual holiday known as Programmers' Day to be celebrated on September 13 (September 12 in leap years). It had also been an unofficial international holiday before that.

Nature of the work[link]

Some of this section is from the Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2006–07 Edition, which is in the public domain as a work of the United States Government.

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.

Programmers work in many settings, including corporate information technology departments, big software companies, and small service firms. 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. Programming is widely considered a profession (although some^[who?] authorities disagree on the grounds that only careers with legal licensing requirements count as a profession).

Programmers' work varies widely depending on the type of business they are writing programs for. 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. Although simple programs can be written in a few hours, programs that use complex mathematical formulas whose solutions can only be approximated or that draw data from many existing systems may require more than a year of work. In most cases, several programmers work together as a team under a senior programmer’s supervision.

Programmers write programs according to the specifications determined primarily by more senior programmers and by systems analysts. After the design process is complete, it is the job of the programmer to convert that design into a logical series of instructions that the computer can follow. The programmer codes these instructions in one of many programming languages. Different programming languages are used depending on the purpose of the program. COBOL, for example, is commonly used for business applications which are run on mainframe and midrange computers, whereas Fortran is used in science and engineering. C++ is widely used for both scientific and business applications. Java, C# and PHP are popular programming languages for Web and business applications. Programmers generally know more than one programming language and, because many languages are similar, they often can learn new languages relatively easily. In practice, programmers often are referred to by the language they know, e.g. as Java programmers, or by the type of function they perform or environment in which they work: for example, database programmers, mainframe programmers, or Web developers.

When making changes to the source code that programs are made up of, programmers need to make other programmers aware of the task that the routine is to perform. They do this by inserting comments in the source code so that others can understand the program more easily. To save work, programmers often use libraries of basic code that can be modified or customized for a specific application. This approach yields more reliable and consistent programs and increases programmers' productivity by eliminating some routine steps.

Testing and debugging[link]

Programmers test a program by running it and looking for bugs. As they are identified, the programmer usually makes the appropriate corrections, then rechecks the program until an acceptably low level and severity of bugs remain. This process is called testing and debugging. These are important parts of every programmer's job. Programmers may continue to fix these problems throughout the life of a program. Updating, repairing, modifying, and expanding existing programs is sometimes called maintenance programming. Programmers may contribute to user guides and online help, or they may work with technical writers to do such work.

Certain scenarios or execution paths may be difficult to test, in which case the programmer may elect to test by inspection which involves a human inspecting the code on the relevant execution path, perhaps hand executing the code. Test by inspection is also sometimes used as a euphemism for inadequate testing. It may be difficult to properly assess whether the term is being used euphemistically.

Application versus system programming[link]

Computer programmers often are grouped into two broad types: application programmers and systems programmers. Application programmers write programs to handle a specific job, such as a program to track inventory within an organization. They also may revise existing packaged software or customize generic applications which are frequently purchased from independent software vendors. Systems programmers, in contrast, write programs to maintain and control computer systems software, such as operating systems and database management systems. These workers make changes in the instructions that determine how the network, workstations, and CPU of the system handle the various jobs they have been given and how they communicate with peripheral equipment such as printers and disk drives.

Types of software[link]

Programmers in software development companies may work directly with experts from various fields to create software — either programs designed for specific clients or packaged software for general use — ranging from computer and video games to educational software to programs for desktop publishing and financial planning. Programming of packaged software constitutes one of the most rapidly growing segments of the computer services industry.

In some organizations, particularly small ones, workers commonly known as programmer analysts are responsible for both the systems analysis and the actual programming work. The transition from a mainframe environment to one that is based primarily on personal computers (PCs) has blurred the once rigid distinction between the programmer and the user. Increasingly, adept end users are taking over many of the tasks previously performed by programmers. For example, the growing use of packaged software, such as spreadsheet and database management software packages, allows users to write simple programs to access data and perform calculations.

In addition, the rise of the Internet has made Web development a huge part of the programming field. More and more software applications nowadays are Web applications that can be used by anyone with a Web browser. Examples of such applications include the Google search service, the Hotmail e-mail service, and the Flickr photo-sharing service.

Globalization[link]

The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (December 2010)

Market changes in the UK[link]

According to BBC, 17% of computer science students could not find work in their field 6 months after graduation in 2009 which was the highest rate of the university majors surveyed while 0% of medical students were unemployed in the same survey.^[10] The UK category system does, however, class such degrees as Information technology and Game design as 'computer science', somewhat inflating the actual figure.^[11]

Market changes in the USA[link]

Computer programming, offshore outsourcing, and Foreign Worker Visas became a controversial topic after the crash of the dot com bubble left many programmers without work or with lower wages. Programming was even mentioned in the 2004 U.S. Presidential debate on the topic of offshore outsourcing.^{[citation needed]}

Large companies claim there is a skills shortage with regard to programming talent. However, U.S. programmers and unions counter that large companies are exaggerating their case in order to obtain cheaper programmers from developing countries and to avoid paying for training in very specific technologies.^{[citation needed]}

Enrollment in computer-related degrees in U.S. has dropped recently due to lack of general interests 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.^{[citation needed]} This situation has resulted in confusion about whether the U.S. economy is entering a "post-information age" and the nature of U.S. comparative advantages. Technology and software jobs were supposed to be the replacement for factory and agriculture jobs lost to cheaper foreign labor, but if those are subject to free trade losses, then the nature of the next generation of replacement careers is not clear at this point.^{[citation needed]}

See also[link]

Computer programming portal

• Ada Lovelace - Ada Lovelace Byron's notes on the analytical engine, containing the first algorithm developed by a human being, often cause her to be called "the first computer programmer", even though modern computers would not be developed until roughly a hundred years later, after the invention of first vacuum tubes, then transistors.
• Code monkey
• Development speed
• Game programmer
• Labor shortage
• List of programmers
• List of Russian programmers
• Real Programmer
• Script kiddie
• Software development process
• Software engineering
• Video game developer
• Women in computing
• ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Weinberg, Gerald M., The Psychology of Computer Programming, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1971
• An experiential study of the nature of programming work: Lucas, Rob. "Dreaming in Code" New Left Review 62, March-April 2010, pp. 125-132.

External links[link]

Look up programmer or coder in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• "The Future of IT Jobs in America" article
• How to be a programmer - An overview of the challenges of being a programmer
• The US Department of Labor's description of "Computer Programmer" and "Computer Software Engineer" and statistics for employed "Computer Programmers"

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (June 2011)

Larry Wall
Born	(1954-09-27) September 27, 1954 (age 57)
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Seattle Pacific University
Occupation	Programmer, Author
Known for	Perl
Religion	International Church of the Nazarene
Spouse	Gloria Wall
Children	4
Website
www.wall.org/~larry/

Larry Wall (born September 27, 1954) is a programmer and author, most widely known for his creation of the Perl programming language in 1987.

Education[link]

Wall grew up in south Los Angeles and then Bremerton, Washington before starting higher education at Seattle Pacific University in 1976, majoring in chemistry and music and later premed with a hiatus of several years working in the university's computing center before graduating with a self-styled bachelor's degree in Natural and Artificial Languages.^[1]

While in graduate school at UC Berkeley, Wall and his wife were studying linguistics with the intention afterwards of finding an unwritten language, perhaps in Africa, and creating a writing system for it. They would then use this new writing system to translate various texts into the language, among them the Bible. Due to health reasons these plans were cancelled, and they remained in the U.S., where Larry instead joined the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory after he finished graduate school.^[2]

Accomplishments[link]

Wall is the author of the rn Usenet client and the nearly universally-used patch program. He has won the International Obfuscated C Code Contest twice and was the recipient of the first Free Software Foundation Award for the Advancement of Free Software in 1998.

Beyond his technical skills, Wall has a reputation for his wit and for his often sarcastic sense of humour,^[3] which he displays in the comments to his source code or on Usenet. For example: "We all agree on the necessity of compromise. We just can't agree on when it's necessary to compromise"^[4] and:

For example, it's been several decades now since a certain set of Bible translations came out, and you'll notice a pattern: the New English Bible, the New American Standard Bible, and the New International Version, to name a few. It's really funny. I suspect we'll still be calling them "new this" and "new that" a hundred years from now. Much like New College at Oxford. Do you know when New College was founded? Any guesses? New College was new in 1379.^[3]

Wall developed the Perl interpreter and language while working for Unisys.^[5] He is the co-author of Programming Perl (often referred to as the Camel Book and published by O'Reilly), which is the definitive resource for Perl programmers; and edited the Perl Cookbook. He then became employed full time by O'Reilly Media to further develop Perl and write books on the subject.^[5]

Wall's training as a linguist is apparent in his books, interviews, and lectures. He often compares Perl to a natural language and explains his decisions in Perl's design with linguistic rationale. He also often uses linguistic terms for Perl language constructs, so instead of traditional terms such as "variable", "function", and "accessor" he sometimes says "noun", "verb", and "topicalizer".

Wall's Christian faith has influenced some of the terminology of Perl, such as the name itself, a biblical reference to the "pearl of great price" (Matthew 13:46).^[6] Similar references are the function name bless, and the organization of Perl 6 design documents with categories such as apocalypse and exegesis. Wall has also alluded to his faith when he has spoken at conferences, including a rather straightforward statement of his beliefs at the August, 1997 Perl Conference and a discussion of Pilgrim's Progress at the YAPC (Yet Another Perl Conference) in June, 2000^{[citation needed]}.

Wall continues to oversee further development of Perl and serves as the Benevolent Dictator for Life of the Perl project. His role in Perl is best conveyed by the so-called 2 Rules, taken from the official Perl documentation:

1. Larry is always by definition right about how Perl should behave. This means he has final veto power on the core functionality.
2. Larry is allowed to change his mind about any matter at a later date, regardless of whether he previously invoked Rule 1.

Got that? Larry is always right, even when he was wrong.^[7][8]

Virtues of a programmer[link]

In the second edition of Programming Perl, Wall (along with coauthors Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Christiansen) outlined the Three Virtues of a Programmer:

1. Laziness – The quality that makes you go to great effort to reduce overall energy expenditure. It makes you write labor-saving programs that other people will find useful, and document what you wrote so you don't have to answer so many questions about it. Hence, the first great virtue of a programmer. Also hence, this book. See also impatience and hubris.
2. Impatience – The anger you feel when the computer is being lazy. This makes you write programs that don't just react to your needs, but actually anticipate them. Or at least pretend to. Hence, the second great virtue of a programmer. See also laziness and hubris.
3. Hubris – Excessive pride, the sort of thing Zeus zaps you for. Also the quality that makes you write (and maintain) programs that other people won't want to say bad things about. Hence, the third great virtue of a programmer. See also laziness and impatience.

See also[link]

Free software portal

• List of computer scientists
• List of programmers
• Perl

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Larry Wall

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