Software Engineer vs programmer: What's the Difference? In short, programmers focus on creating functional code, while software engineers design software from an engineering perspective with consideration for end - users, clients, and business needs. Software engineers are also programmers themselves Programmer Computer programmers write code. They type the lines of code that comprise software , operating systems , and other computer programs. Some people use the terms, 'coding' and 'programming' interchangeably. Technically , coding is just the act of writing code- programming often focuses on the entire project, not just pieces of it. The term 'programming' can be a general ...