Programming is just a means to an end, a way to tell a machine what to do to achieve a result. In that it is no different from any other skill, even if as a skill it is probably one of the most satisfying ones that I've ever learned.
Nobody learns how to program in order to program, but always in order to achieve some other goal. Writing for the sake of writing (Calligraphy) has an analogue in programming, but it is probably no coincidence that we call that the obfuscated code contest ;)
Code is a means of communication, and while it has elegance and moments of extreme satisfaction I really see it as part of technology as a whole, and not as something that stands by itself.
Computers were built to solve problems, and software makes solving problems easier than rewiring computers between jobs.
Why the negative in the question? Wouldn't it be easier to just write 'Are you a programmer?' Not that a single negative makes the question harder, it's just that the optimiser in me sees that as a thing that could be re-written shorter and more elegant.
I guess not. It's just that I think of myself as an artist, and it's just a coincidence that for some reason my medium is technology. I never did coding because I really didn't have to. I used to make stuff in the real world instead and adding a micro-controller was a level of complexity that I couldn't approach due to parental time restrictions.
However, now when I have this idea that extensively requires server based computation then I am teaching myself how to code, and I think that I might fall in love.
It's just that I don't think in one paradigm. To me everything is connected. I once went from trying to make a more intuitive search engine interface using NLP to a haptic I/O device (prototype 0.0. : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jHIoJ5nvtw . I hand wound the coil, by the way. I even filed for my first patent for that, but now I don't have money to develop it further and create a proper application.)
I know I am weird but everything is beautiful to me and all I care about is creating something beautiful. I am not sure what you might call me. I am not a traditional artist per se my medium isn't even considered art.
I have almost the same views. All through my childhood I liked building things, and taking other things apart to see how they worked. An elementary hacker if you will.
Then I grew up and went into a subset of manufacturing, but always loved playing with technology. After some years, I started building systems to help me perform my job with more automation and skill and after a couple projects, I needed to learn to code, which I started to pick up. Programming things is something I love, but its a tool to do other interests.
Coding and programming just to write keywords and numbers in a text editor isn't all that fun.
Nobody learns how to program in order to program, but always in order to achieve some other goal. Writing for the sake of writing (Calligraphy) has an analogue in programming, but it is probably no coincidence that we call that the obfuscated code contest ;)
Code is a means of communication, and while it has elegance and moments of extreme satisfaction I really see it as part of technology as a whole, and not as something that stands by itself.
Computers were built to solve problems, and software makes solving problems easier than rewiring computers between jobs.
Why the negative in the question? Wouldn't it be easier to just write 'Are you a programmer?' Not that a single negative makes the question harder, it's just that the optimiser in me sees that as a thing that could be re-written shorter and more elegant.