When does a “scripter” become a “programmer”?

Generally the difference is that a "scripter" is writing scripts as part of some other process (IE, for batch processing, or for running backups), whereas a programmer is actually writing a complete application of some sort.

The language is really irrelevant. The scripter is just writing "quick and dirty" scripts in order to get a job done, whereas a programmer is trying to create something that will be useful for a longer period.

The distinction can get hazy of course, but it's one of those areas where pretty much all programmers are also scripters, but not all scripters are programmers.

Imagine being in a software house. Imagine having one programmer and one scripter. The boss asks some software to be done.

• Can the scripter get the job done? Most likely.
• Can the scripter write readable and maintenable code? Almost impossible.
• Can the scripter apply the right paradigms, design patterns and choose the right architecture, frameworks, etc? Hell he doesn't even know what this stuff means.
• Can the programmer work as fast as the scripter? Not likely.
• Can the programmer write code that any other programmer will be able to read and mantain? Almost always.
• Can the programmer analyze, structure, work with complex stuff and make choiches foreseeing the future? Hell yeah.

Even when your granny set up your DVD recorder to save a TV show from channel A, starting at X, ending at Y, she programs. But does it make your granny a programmer? No. As anyone who managed to attach two pipes doesn't become a plumber on this basis.

Programming can be understood both as activity and as a profession. We've already seen that even your granny performs such activity as programming, so, from the "activity" point of view, "scripter" is a "programmer" as well.

From the professional point of view, the language you use is less relevant than your duties. A sysadmin who heavily uses his own scripts to start up, query and restart servers and services is not a programmer. But a guy who works in RedHat, and maintains the same set of scripts as a part of their Linux Distribution is a programmer. And whether you treat shell script and VBscript guys programmers depends on your hubris only.

I'm probably taking a very distinct viewpoint than everyone here, but I think scripter is just a synonym for programmers.

Maybe not an exact synonym, the word scripter tends to contain the sense of being less experienced and more amateurish than a programmer; however, IMO there are no technical difference between the two.

I wouldn't object that a scripter is a programmer, but I would argue the difference between a scripter and a programmer, or rather the difference between an unsophisticated programmer and an experienced professional programmer is the realization of the importance of,

• algorithms and computational complexity
• code readability and maintainability
• error handling

etc.

My personal opinion is that a scripter becomes a programmer when he or she starts to take an interest in more than just accomplishing the job at hand, and learns how to do some of: write maintainable code, use source control, learn language features to be better/more efficient, etc. In particular, if you want a quick and dirty test, my first and only question would be "do they use source control?"

I'm not posting anything that new, but I felt a distinction needed to be made. It used to be that programmers wrote in compiled languages and scripters wrote in interpreted languages. Is it really fair to call the guys that work on metasploit scripters now? No. I tend to think of programming as requiring additional skill and ability, such that programs: manipulate more inputs and outputs, handle more complicated tasks, present a framework that can be utilized by other programs, and accomplish more diverse tasks. Scripts on the other hand tend to be: more single purpose, don't expose the logic for reuse, and are written in interpreted languages. I tend to hold to scripters use interpreted languages and programmers use compiled languages with the exceptions of python and ruby.

I use the term scripter to describe someone that wraps existing libraries in order to automate a manual task in a system or across systems.

It is a sub-type of programmer like Database programmer, System programmer or Web Programmer.

scripter = very inexperienced programmer, who knows nothing like OOP, MVC, algorithms, readable code, agile, picking right frameworks/libraries for work, working with DBs, optimising code for speed, etc.

A scripter becomes a programmer when he makes the conscious decision to improve his programming skills, instead of coasting along with minimal abilities.

As soon as they graduate from using primitive JavaScript hacks for web development and advance to real development using either Flex, Silverlight, or JavaFX rich clients. :)

A scripter is like a car mechanic, he may be highly skilled at what he does, but he has to have the car to start with, and what's wrong with it has to be fixable by means of replacing a part. A programmer is anyone from the assembly line worker building the car to the designer sketching concepts in a CAD package.

Scripts are programs that are not required to be compiled before runtime. Eg: PERL; PHP; BASH; et al.

Obviously some languages can be optionally compiled ahead of time (eg: PHP), but one would consider that a code cache. Java and .NET that are compiled down to bytecode for a virtual processor (JVM and CLR) would still count as "programs".

Keeping this in mind, your question seems predicated on the concept that Programmers and Scripters perform the same work, but are differentiated by their experience level or some other performance.

In my mind, scripters are a subset programmers working with different tools.

Now that I'm done nitpicking, I'll try to answer what I think you're actually asking - when someone can be considered a programmer. My answer is simple - when someone is actively earning a living from programming, then they are a Programmer. Anything else is just programming as a hobby.

My perception of scripting languages is pseudo-programming languages that let you control very limited tasks, such as in a game that can be easily modded. I'm not entirely sure if this is an accurate definition, but I think a scripter becomes a programmer when he/she learns a language that can exist on its own.

A scripter who has formal CS training (and, at the minimum, understands how the Operating System works and knows how the script was executed/interpreted in the scripting environment, and how that scripting environment interacts with the Operating System in return) can easily switch to doing a programmer's job. There is no barrier, just learn more API.

Some scripters can also have the same niche expertise as programmers. For example, some scripters know techniques for hiding network latencies or performing multiple intensive / long latency tasks in parallel. Those knowledge are not exclusive to programmers.

Programmers are people that do programming full-time to solve business problems in code. Scripting is what Sysadmins do to automate their manual processes to keep the servers up and running.