So many words have appeared in the Russian language over the past 20 years that it is simply impossible to know them all. With the active development of the Internet, new professions began to emerge. Moreover, people of different specialties can work on the same thing. Of course, an ordinary person does not have to understand everything in a row. Especially because he is not interested. But if you are somehow connected with programming, then you definitely want to know what an encoder is.
Premise
On the one hand, the question of the difference between the specialties of an encoder and a programmer can be considered far-fetched. There is no problem at first glance. But if you look closer to them, it becomes clear why these two professions are so often confused.
In many ways, the inaccuracy of formulations and translations is associated with English-language concepts. This is now faced with the entire array of new-fangled words that come into the Russian language. A huge number of names begins to appear in one subject, and it is already becoming unclear whether we are facing a computer case, a system unit or a chassis.
The same thing happens with professions. The problem was especially acute with specialties related to computers. Interestingly, even now there may be a skirmish in a dispute about an encoder and a programmer. What is the difference between these specialties, everyone can decide for himself.
Two camps
Inaccurate definitions of these words appeared in the mid-2000s. So it was possible to distinguish two opposing camps. They entered into an argument in every forum, proving their innocence. In fact, we got polemicists who believe that programmers are people who work with code and architecture. From this we can make a logical conclusion that the coder and programmer are synonymous professions.
Representatives of the second camp thought a little differently. In their opinion, a programmer is an advanced specialist who can be called an architect. But the encoder is an entry-level programmer.
The second opinion gives the right to assert that the programmer is considered the dominant person, who designs and creates the algorithms that the program will work on, and the encoder simply fulfills all its plans.
Versatility
These are the two most common opinions that Internet residents have come to. The main problem is that it is extremely difficult to separate the encoder and the programmer. Often they perform both the first and second task. This situation remotely resembles the editor and proofreader. When it is obvious that the first is a leader who works on the publication on all fronts, and the second corrects errors in the text. But recently, the editor often turns into a part-time corrector, especially if you want to reduce staff and save.
The same story happens with the programmer, who often not only develops algorithms, but then implements them as an encoder.
Insult
Of course, it would be foolish to think that forum users and Internet patrons were ideally divided into two camps. There were those who advanced their crazy theories. They are worth a brief mention. So, in the pursuit of a single definition, offensive and not very interpretative ones appeared.
An encoder is a fast encoder. Here such a strange opinion was found on the network. It is not hard to guess that the explanation of this specialty is rather offensive. Some felt that the encoder is not a professional. It only “suffers” over non-optimized code that writes with errors. The coder has no experience; he is an ignoramus who imagines himself a programmer.
Creation
Another opinion has already been described previously, but in a different wording. The programmer is called the creator, but the artisan is the encoder. Interpretation is possible and would have the right to life, but there is one snag. Rarely, the work of a programmer can be called creativity. Creators are designers, artists, musicians. Programmers write codes, try to please the customer, realize their tasks, etc. Of course, it happens that a programmer becomes the head of one of the departments, then he works on creative tasks. But a full-time specialist usually does monotonous work.
If you are convinced that programming is creativity, so be it. But then to deny that the encoder is engaged in the same creativity is pointless. After all, both specialists are working on one object - the code.
Origin
In order not to get confused in opinions and decide how the encoder differs from the programmer, you can go from the other side. As mentioned above, these are two borrowed words. So, they have a translation, which will give clear definitions.
It turns out that English is not very helpful in resolving this issue. Be it “programmer”, “coder” or “developer”, in Russian it still turns out to be a programmer. That is, from a linguistic point of view, these are synonyms.
There is an assumption that the word “coder” was originally used because it is shorter and easier and faster to write. But we know that the Russian language is striving to become easier. So the concepts of "encoder" and "programmer" at one point merged.
Necessity
In general, the problem of the Russian language consists precisely in the fact that often words appear in it that do not have a practical meaning. That is, there was a programmer for himself, he did not touch anyone, and suddenly, the word became difficult to write, and decided to use its synonym “encoder”. This is a simple replacement of words, which did not bring a new concept into the language, but only simplified the existing one.
To prove this opinion, one can recall the use of the "programmer". It turns out that some users have decided for themselves that it is the right way to use the name of this profession. As a result, we get that people recently use either familiar words or new-fangled ones.
Skill level
Since the translation from English does not give any new facts about the use of these words, let us return to the previous opinion. An encoder or programmer has different qualifications. This is the most common division of specialties. It turns out that the programmer of the lowest category is classified as an encoder.
In fact, to prove this belief does not work. But there was evidence that there was an accepted standard that allowed all programmers to be divided into four qualification groups. The first included trainees, coders, junior programmers and developers. In the second were engineers and programmers. The third placed senior developers and programmers, as well as engineers. The latter included a leading programmer, senior specialist and chief engineer.
Interestingly, for each group, requirements and tasks were prescribed. But another problem arose - the encoder is not in the list. For that there is an encoder. Again the clash of two synonymic concepts that could be divided into two camps.
In general, an encoder and encoder are not just synonyms. This is one and the same concept, since the first and second in English will be “coder”. So, we return again to the fact that the coder is just a performer, and the programmer is an ideological inspirer and, in some cases, a leader.