what is the difference of a coder and a programmer?

Answer 1

Well, technically speaking, there probably isn't a lot. In my twisted experience, I call someone with a passing familiarity with the syntax of a language a coder. I call someone who "speaks" it fluently and has used it enough to know the most efficient approach to certain tasks in the language a programmer. IMHO, the difference is that a coder is to a programmer as a 1st year Spanish student is to a Mexican native. I work with C and C++ a lot, so there I am a programmer. In HTML, I'd be a coder at best. It isn't so much the knowledge as the learning curve and experience that determine it.

Answer 2

A lot of people argue whether there is a difference.

Someone that develops applications in C++, C#, or VB will most likely call someone that develops static webpages a coder. Whereas, a person that develops static HTML webpages may consider themselves to be a programmer.

Dictionary.com's definition of coder:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/coder

It is synonymous with programmer.

Answer 3

well, just think in the word creation:
coder: code + er, someone who (writes) code
programmer: program + er, someone who (creates) programs

Seeing this, I'm sure all programmers are coders, since you can't possibly create a program without writing a code, but not all programmer are coder, since HTML is a code, but if you create a HTML page, you are not making a program, but rather writing HTML codes, so web designer that uses HTML are coders (for scripts, I'm not sure where to put it, perhaps scripters).

Answer 4

what's the difference between potatoes and spuds?