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osigurdson 3 days ago

Is there really a large delta between computer programming, coding, computer science and software engineering?

skydhash 3 days ago | parent [-]

If we're sticking with the accepted definitions, there is.

Computer programming is the idea of making a computer do some task in an automated manner by giving it instructions that it will follow.

Coding is using some kind of language for the above. You take some a spec and you transform it into a textual representation.

Computer science is mostly about studying what the computer can do and what it cannot. It is the actual foundation of everything

Software engineering is about producing software by following engineering principles. Coding is a small part of it. It's mostly about getting things done reliably. The constraints are rarely technical, but mostly about coordination and resources usage.

Most people talks about computer programming when they should talk about software engineering. Computer programming is easy and we have a lot of tools to assists with coding technicalities. Software engineering is hard and the more you do it, the more you see that the problem is mostly about truly understanding what needs to be done and do it well.

osigurdson 2 days ago | parent [-]

According to these definitions, everyone who writes any code is doing computer programming and coding. This is not a role really, just like "pliers user" doesn't describe a role just something that many roles may do. Software engineering is management and writing of specs. Of course if one were to write a spec in a completely unambiguous way, it would be code.