I want to be a...

Back in January 2017, I wrote an article titled I'm sick of being a programmer. I explained that I like programming, but I don't like the low quality that generally accompanies it. Now, nine months later, and having read several more books, I know how I'd prefer to describe myself.

The Clean Coder by Robert C. Martin is subtitled A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers. In case you missed the significance of that, it's for professional programmers, not programmers in general, unless they want to become professional. Robert Martin is talking about being a consummate professional; he doesn't mean just having a job. Just because your profession is programming, doesn't mean you're a professional programmer! However, unless you've read the book, describing yourself as a professional programmer doesn't seem much different from a programmer.

Two of his other books in the same series provide clues: Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship and Clean Architecture: A Craftsman's Guide to Software Structure and Design. The clues are "craftsmanship" and "craftsman".

Another book that provides a clue in its subtitle is The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master. The clue this time is "master".

So, from now on, I'd like to have a reputation as a Master Programmer or a Software Craftsman.

To the politically correct: if you're a woman I'd advise against calling yourself a Mistress Programmer or a Software Craftswoman. You could call yourself a Software Crafter, but to me that lacks the power of Craftsman. As a suffix "man" means "human" or "person", and goes back to a Germanic root meaning "one", as in an individual of any gender or age. So, "a craftsman" means "one who crafts", not "an adult male who crafts".

Who would you prefer to have on your team? Men and women who are programmers, master programmers or software craftsmen?