On the other hand, I am a generalist programmer with an engineering degree that right at the moment is working on different project in various fields and in each of this project on various layers of technology => the result is that i'm touching at the same time electronic (yeah this even goes beyond programming), low level (drivers, telecom stack), medium level (application infrastructure), databases, user interface, sysadmin, and so over.
Saying that "programmer" means nothing is not completely false, but not completely true either. The application domain matters, but just as in other professions; you can't pretend that "electronic engineer" means nothing, you can't prented that "neutronic engineer" means nothing, even if you don't know if the first one is currently designing electronic boards for missiles or set-top-box, and if the second one is currently designing nuclear weapons or civilian reactor, or doing some radioprotection work.
In that sense saying "programmer" means nothing because there are lot of different programmers with various background and levels is an implicit depreciation of professional highly competent programmers capable of working on anything related to computer programming (and even in a lot of cases, beyond computer programming).
Having learned mathematics at school does not makes me a mathematician, even when I am using that math knowledge in a project, and not more than commentating about a book with friend makes me a literary critic. Doing dilettante or a little of entry level programming does not makes somebody a "programmer" either.
Saying that "programmer" means nothing is not completely false, but not completely true either. The application domain matters, but just as in other professions; you can't pretend that "electronic engineer" means nothing, you can't prented that "neutronic engineer" means nothing, even if you don't know if the first one is currently designing electronic boards for missiles or set-top-box, and if the second one is currently designing nuclear weapons or civilian reactor, or doing some radioprotection work.
In that sense saying "programmer" means nothing because there are lot of different programmers with various background and levels is an implicit depreciation of professional highly competent programmers capable of working on anything related to computer programming (and even in a lot of cases, beyond computer programming).
Having learned mathematics at school does not makes me a mathematician, even when I am using that math knowledge in a project, and not more than commentating about a book with friend makes me a literary critic. Doing dilettante or a little of entry level programming does not makes somebody a "programmer" either.