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Web Developer Vs Software Engineer

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  • 23-07-2008 2:20pm
    #1
    Drexl Spivey
    Registered Users Posts: 528 ✭✭✭


    Hi,

    What is the difference between a Web Developer and a Software Engineer?


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    #2
    CuLT
    Subscribers Posts: 9,716 ✭✭✭CuLT


    Web development is usually described as a subsection of software engineering. Although arguably it is too multidisciplinary to be categorised as such, as people will often include web design when talking about web development.

    Wikipedia has more.

    In a more basic sense, asking what's the difference is between a software engineer and a web developer is like asking what the difference between a car and a honda is :) If you follow...


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    #3
    jmcc
    Registered Users Posts: 7,344 ✭✭✭jmcc


    Jeff Bond wrote: »
    Hi,

    What is the difference between a Web Developer and a Software Engineer?
    Minimum wage +1 and few hundred euros an hour.

    Regards...jmcc


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    #4
    Drexl Spivey
    Registered Users Posts: 528 ✭✭✭Drexl Spivey


    jmcc wrote: »
    Minimum wage +1 and few hundred euros an hour.

    Regards...jmcc

    That's what I thought! :)


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    #5
    ianhobo
    Registered Users Posts: 413 ✭✭ianhobo


    You could also argue that one needs a Bachelors/Masters Degree in Engineering to call themselves an "Engineer", as opposed to the more general terms like "software developer", "software programmer" etc which would not require you having studied an engineering related discipline.


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    #6
    Eoin
    Registered Users Posts: 21,242 ✭✭✭✭Eoin


    ianhobo wrote: »
    You could also argue that one needs a Bachelors/Masters Degree in Engineering to call themselves an "Engineer", as opposed to the more general terms like "software developer", "software programmer" etc which would not require you having studied an engineering related discipline.

    Yes, I remember reading about some country (possibly Canada) that is getting snippy about people not being allowed call themselves engineers without an engineering qualification.

    As CuLT says, web development is a subset of software engineering / development. Often it's just down to what terms a company chooses to use. You'll find a lot of people who call themselves (or their company calls them) software engineers / developers but work exclusively in web development. This can work the other way as well, you may find web developers who may just work on the business logic of a web platform, and have very little to do with what's sent to the browser.


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    #7
    p
    Registered Users Posts: 2,119 ✭✭✭p


    Broadly speaking, I'd consider a web developer to be someone who develops software for the web. E.g. someone who uses stuff like PHP, JSP or .NET and has at least some knowledge of HTML/CSS etc...

    A software developer would just be anyone who develops software, so as Cult says, a web dev is a subset of that term, but generally I would expect the title software developer to be used when applied to someone who works with Desktop Software, rather than web-based.

    Though there's certainly companies who'd use term software-dev for people working on web-dev software, but that would be a general rule.


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    #8
    Eoin
    Registered Users Posts: 21,242 ✭✭✭✭Eoin


    With lots of applications and interfaces being migrated to a thin client approach, I think the lines are blurring quite a lot. You find a lot of people are developing the business logic tier / web-service interface etc of a web-based application, but will have very little to do with the presentation tier.

    I suppose they could be defined as the software engineer, and the person who connects the website with the logic as the web developer, but it's very subjective.


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