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My wife seems to think Software Engineer sounds better.
Alex
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The difference between a programmer and a software engineer is how many times you need to read the manual? I thought the difference was around $20,000.
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I consider myself as a Developer.
This includes Analysis and Modeling as well as Programming 
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Programmer. "Software Engineer" is a contradictory term. If engineers designed machines the way programmers write software, civilization as we understand it would collapse in a couple of hours.
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And if we programmers develop software like engineer develop machines, we would still be using computer in command lines.
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I think of myself as a brilliant technological magician. I tailor my information to the crowd I am addressing. For most people I just say "I write software" because they're not likely to understand (or even want to know) anything more anyway.
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Hmm.. I remember when we had PAPER terminals for editing our code, in a souped up version of EDLIN called TECO (Text Editor COrrecter).
Rewrite your code, no syntax checking. Desk check it.
Submit for compile, and come back the NEXT DAY to see if it compiled...
Then we got Green screens. Pretty much the same, but fewer trees were killed.
Boy things have changed. Being a programmer required the patience of Job.
I am embarrassed to admit how often I use autocomplete because you can no longer keep track of the methods on every class you come in contact with...
We will always expand our efforts to the point of failure, and then develop newer tools!
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Gates, among others, wasn't a "graduate" when he started; was he a "programmer" or an engineer?
Depends on what circles you travel in.
To my users, I'm The IT Guy ... or that s.o.b.
They string up mechanical engineers when bridges fail; when was the last time a "software engineer" was hung?
A "software engineer" "should do no harm" (my take); the "engineers" at VW didn't get that.
"(I) am amazed to see myself here rather than there ... now rather than then".
― Blaise Pascal
modified 9-Nov-17 10:49am.
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because I do lots of software maintenance and I am usually fixing stuff that doesn't work  
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I have an excellent memory for syntax and parameter lists, but the universe of libraries and languages is so big I still have to look things up all the time because it's a new function.
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When they said I was a programmer I worked daily in 2 languages while I knew to varying levels about 5. I used printed manuals since that was all I had available, no google, no web, the index was your friend and remembering was faster.
Then they labeled me a developer, I was working daily in about 4 languages and knew many more. The web was just beginning so it still wasn't much use and there was still books and man.
Now I am an architect, there are no printed manuals. I can be working at any time in any of around 10 languages. I now realize that all languages are basically the same, except for prolog. Now I think more along "I want to do foo, I have to use language bar, how do I do foo in bar?" Somewhere out on the web somebody has probably done foo in bar or at least something close enough to figure out the rest of the way.
I use a calculator for bit masks over 8 bits, I use a regex tool rather than stare at the ceiling. I spend a lot more time thinking about how to make the resulting code/arch understandable to the next person who has to look at it. There are better things to do with my memory and time than tracking the various shiny objects in the field, knowing that I need to do foo is more important.
I use the term software engineer to describe myself to people who ask but won't understand.
In my head I am just a person that fixes things.
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Glad some one sees it the same way I do!
I put together the most trashy code, almost psuedo code, then let the compiler tell me where my syntax is wrong. Still, doesnt stop me creating great products!
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I think of software engineer as the guys who write compilers, device drivers, implement network protocols, design operating systems, frameworks, and that sort of thing. Programmers make use of the stuff created by software engineers, in order to build higher level applications. Generally speaking, software engineers build stuff for programmers, while programmers build stuff for everyone else.
That being the case, I started out as a software engineer 20+ years ago, but am now a programmer.
On the other hand, you have different fingers. - Steven Wright
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To me, that is all just a part of programming. I am a programmer, software engineer, analyst, pc technician, operator, operations analyst, electronics newbie, physics newbie, gamer, automation specialist, etc. I just simplify it to Computer Programmer with a Computer Scientist perspective.
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I consider myself to be a Software Engineer (Level 5). That's my official title here at FlightSafety Simulation Systems as well. But to function in that capacity, I do need to constantly stay abreast of current programming technologies, environments, and tools. This often makes me feel like a Software Developer. We were Computer Programmers in the 1980s, when we had mainframes and only a few languages like FORTRAN, Pascal, and COBOL. The programs were coded on whole-punched cards that were submitted to the mainframe computer room for compilation, and the output was usually merely on printed paper. There were no IDEs, no Googles, no flat-screen monitors, and no CodeProject. That's when we were Programmers. 
Richard Givis
Nidan of the Vortex
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If you don't code then your are neither programmer, developer nor software engineer. You are manager or project manager to be precise. Software engineers definitely code, they are also responsible for software architecture (DB, framework, direction, support and even budgeting).
modified 9-Nov-17 14:06pm.
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Started as a programmer, learning the skill of coding, but gained appreciation for software engineering in grad school, where very large problems were decimated down into little chunks that even I could understand better. Then I could see that coding within the context of an engineered plan was more pleasant. I could leverage the help of others without breeding discontent and chaos. Each skill uses different parts of my brain, and each can be enjoyable.
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I am a senior software engineer. That is according to the company for which I work. Daily, I am using reference resources from the web (Google search, Stack Overflow, Code Project, and so on) to paper and book (real, technical books, reams of print-out code listing or requirement documents, or virtual paper as in Kindle or PDF).
I've been doing this stuff since the early 1980s. I'm in my 50s. I see the big picture. Many changes have come and gone in our industry of software science. I try to be agile.
I call myself a software and systems solutions engineer.
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Very good analysis.
I am an ex mech/aero engineer. I would no more expect to remember the thread pitch of an M8 fine than the minutae of a language, or a parameter variable. I work at a far higher level than that, designing the complex mechanisms that are composed of software.
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You have a mind like a sieve for facts, just Like Einstein.
when you programmed a Z80 with Op Codes, you had them memorized.
Back then, you were a 'programmer'.
Then came 5 volume Turbo-pascal API for windows 3.1..
The first of many bloated APIs and Dozens of languages ;C++, C, Java, C#, Ruby, Python, Go, Node.js
All the meaningless details and irrelevant syntax has been discarded by your brain. You have distilled out an understanding of software structure and design common to all architectures.
You now float above most humans like a zen-guru. Your code requires a function pointer ? How that is done exactly, is a job for google, and the auto-complete of whatever IDE you happen to be using. Details like that are for code-monkeys and programmers. not you. your mind contains the pure design, The Plot of the story; The essence of the characters. Language is irrelevant now.. you have become a Software engineer.
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Yep, spot on. The older and more experienced you get the more you move away from trivial details and implementation and gain the ability to hold complex mechanisms in your mind, in such detail, that you can see them functioning with all the required states and synchronisation.
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Definitely a programmer here. I'm the weird type. I can see the big pic and program in any language as long as I know the verbs (which I can google). I know how the computer works, and can make it scratch it's fleas if I want. Getting old, but still loving it. Passed it on to my son and now he's hooked. He's gonna be a Game Designer in 6 months or so.
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Personally I consider "software engineer" to be a case of buzzword bingo, just like "software developer" or "rockstar". Before these fluff phrases came into existence, "programmer" implied not just syntax and "details", but also spending time considering the big picture.
Honestly, since when did programming ever not involve "designing and understanding complex mechanisms. The architecture. The guts of the machine"? It always meant that. Don't let recruiter-speak diminish the meaning of "programmer".
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