Programmer

A computer programmer, sometimes called more recently a coder (especially in more informal contexts), is a person who creates computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computers, or to a generalist who writes code for many kinds of software. A programmer's most oft-used computer language (e.g., Assembly, COBOL, C, C++, C#, Java, Lisp, Python) may be prefixed to the term programmer. Some who work with web programming languages also prefix their titles with web. A range of occupations that involve programming also often require a range of other, similar skills, for example: (software) developer, web developer, mobile applications developer, embedded firmware developer, software engineer, computer scientist, game programmer, game developer and software analyst. The use of the term programmer as applied to these positions is sometimes considered an insulting simplification or even derogatory. British countess and mathematician Ada Lovelace is often considered to be the first computer programmer, as she was the first to publish part of a program (specifically an algorithm) intended for implementation on Charles Babbage's analytical engine, in October 1842. The algorithm was used to calculate Bernoulli numbers. Because Babbage's machine was never completed as a functioning standard in Lovelace's time, she unfortunately never had the opportunity to see the algorithm in action. The first person to execute a program on a functioning, modern, electronic computer was the renowned computer scientist Konrad Zuse, 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.International Programmers' Day is celebrated annually on 7 January. In 2009, the government of Russia decreed a professional annual holiday known as Programmers' Day to be celebrated on 13 September (12 September in leap years). It had already been an unofficial holiday before that in many countries. The word software was used as early as 1953, but did not regularly appear in print until the 1960's. Before this time, computers were programmed either by customers or the few commercial computer manufacturers of the time, such as UNIVAC and IBM. The first company founded to specifically provide software products and services was the Computer Usage Company, in 1955. The software industry expanded in the early 1960's, almost immediately after computers were first sold in mass-produced quantities. Universities, governments and businesses created a demand for software. Many of these programs were written in-house by full-time staff programmers; some were distributed freely between users of a particular machine for no charge. And others were developed on a commercial basis. Other firms, such as Computer Sciences Corporation (founded in 1959) also started to grow. The computer/hardware manufacturers soon started bundling operating systems, system software and programming environments with their machines.