When is a person a programmer?

[ZugZugZealot]

programmer: one who programs

program: to prepare a program for.

programmer: one who makes programs

program: the precise sequence of instructions enabling a computer to solve a problem

Putting things in your startup folder.

The real question is someone who does X a Y kind of programmer?
Rather than rape a word's literal meaning and putting forth effort into making it ambiguous, please use adjectives instead.
Such things as...
-Awesome Programmer
-Professional Programmer
-Competent Programmer
-Foolish Programmer
-Crazy Programmer
-Happy Programmer
-Sad Programmer
-Disestablishmentarian Programmer
-Antidisestablishmentarian Programmer
And the list goes on!

 

[Samael88]

I would say that a person like me who knows one language and makes some programs in his/her spare time should be considered a "hobby" programmer.

A person on the other hand who actually works with programming, even if it is just making some basic c++ coded things for a company, should be considered a proffesional programmer.

The "skill-level" or "knowledge-level" has nothing to do with those two things.

When you have done that you can start comparing skills and only on this formula:
Proffesional programmer = 1
Hobby programmer = 0

0 + 0 = 1<- skill comparison acceptable
0 + 1 = 0<- skill comparison is a gray area
1 + 0 = 0
1 + 1 = 1

 

[ZugZugZealot]

And a happy programmer is one that has access to documentation that's concise and compiles correctly.

 

[The Helper]

Hall of Fame bump!