developer
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɪˈvɛləpə(ɹ)/
ipa: /dɪˈvɛləpɚ/
Forms: form: developers
form: dev
Etymology: From develop + -er.
Senses: glosses: A person or entity engaged in the creation or improvement of certain classes of products.
examples: text: Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an "explosion."
ref: 2013 June 21, Chico Harlan, “Japan pockets the subsidy …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 30:
glosses: A real estate developer; a person or company who prepares a parcel of land for sale, or creates structures on that land.
glosses: A film developer; a person who uses chemicals to create photographs from photograph negatives.
glosses: A liquid used in the chemical processing of traditional photos.
topics: business
dyeing
manufacturing
textiles
glosses: A reagent used to produce an ingrain color by its action upon some substance on the fiber.
examples: text: More important, when we looked at who worked in that industry, we noticed that programmers were in the minority. They’re dwarfed by, among other occupations, the software developers. The two terms are sometimes used interchangeably, but the jobs follow very different trajectories. Nationwide, software developers haven’t struggled nearly as much as their programming brethren — few other computer-related occupations have. So what makes programmers different? To answer that, we need to dive forehead first into everybody’s favorite part of any analysis: arcane occupation definitions! Upon perusing the fine print, we saw that while programmers do in fact program, they “work from specifications drawn up by software and web developers or other individuals.” That seems like a clue. In the real world, “developer” and “programmer” can seem almost interchangeable. But in the world of government statistics, where we have legal permanent residency, there’s a clear distinction. In the [US] government’s schema, programmers do the grunt work while the much more numerous — and much faster-growing — software developers enjoy a broader remit. They figure out what clients need, design solutions and work with folks such as programmers and hardware engineers to implement them. Their pay reflects this gap in responsibilities. The median programmer earned $99,700 in 2023, compared with $132,270 for the median developer. And while 27.5 percent of programming jobs vanished, jobs for developers have only fallen 0.3 percent, similar to the broader industry.
ref: 2025 March 14, Andrew Van Dam, “Department of Data: More than a quarter of computer-programming jobs just vanished. What happened? Learning to code was supposedly the salvation of millions of liberal art majors. But now programming jobs are plummeting. The Post’s Department of Data tries to figure out what’s going on”, in Washington Post:
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
coordinate_terms: programmer[Appendix:Glossary#broadly|broadly]] synonymous>
software engineer[Appendix:Glossary#broadly|broadly]] synonymous>
;
designer
;
software architect
glosses: A software developer; a person or company who creates or modifies computer software.
Derived terms: 10x developer
codeveloper
developer exit
developer experience
developer program
megadeveloper
predeveloper
web developer
Related terms: develop
development
developmental