Can programmers be called code authors?

Question

Can programmers be called code authors or any other term similar in meaning to a book author?

I think a very generic question one might ask would be: "Who is the author of this code?" A little less common than "Who wrote this code?" perhaps, but certainly nothing that would raise eyebrows. — Robusto, Dec 16 '18 at 13:58

score 12 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 15 '12 at 15:07

12

As a programmer myself, I say "why the hell not?" — But I guess that's biased?

However, Merriam-Webster does seem to agree with me as it defines 'author' as: "one that originates or creates" and cites software authors as an example.

So in both my opinion and the accepted definition of the word author, yes, a programmer can be considered an author.

edited Jan 15 '12 at 15:07

Alenanno

18,136

answered Jan 14 '12 at 04:30

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot

868

It seems like this would only be appropriate when the author or authors being described were the primary visionaries. If I were to write out a non-trivial algorithm in pseudo code and handed it off to somebody else to implement, I would object to them being called the "code author" even if it is technically accurate. – Jordan Bentley Feb 06 '12 at 04:24
Books often have co-authors. If I wrote pseudo code and handed it off to someone else to write the functional code, I believe they would be the author and I would be the co-author. – Speeddymon Jul 19 '21 at 17:11

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 14 '12 at 04:30

7

Yes, but it must be used judiciously and rarely to avoid sounding pretentious.

answered Jan 14 '12 at 04:30

James McLeod

9,207

11

I'm a software auteur – mgb Jan 14 '12 at 04:39
@mgb - LOL! You should promote yourself to software maestro. – James McLeod Jan 14 '12 at 14:57
I prefer software stylist (c.f. Punchline – Steve Melnikoff Jan 23 '12 at 10:06

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 16 '18 at 13:33

5

Doxygen, a source code documentation system that supports several languages, uses the \author tag to document who authored the code.

Here's a C++ example:

//! \class  GargleBlaster
//! \brief  Alcoholic equivalent of a mugging
//! \author Zaphod Beeblebrox

edited Dec 16 '18 at 13:33

albert

103

answered Jan 14 '12 at 08:23

Gnawme

40,887

2

The same holds for Javadoc: /** @author Zaphod Beeblebrox */ – Felix Dombek Jan 14 '12 at 13:38
But does this refer to the author of the documentation, or of the code? – James McLeod Jan 14 '12 at 14:57
@JamesMcLeod it refers to the author of the file/class/method/function the docblock is documenting. – WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot Jan 14 '12 at 16:25
2

@JamesMcLeod Always the code author(s), in my experience – Gnawme Jan 14 '12 at 17:05
@Gnawme, that is my experience as well, but I don't believe I have ever encountered the case where the author of the code and the author of the documentation metadata are different. For this case, I am starting to think it makes much more sense for the [\@]author tag to refer to the author of the documentation, as this is the person who should be contacted about problems with the documentation. – James McLeod Jan 14 '12 at 19:31
@JamesMcLeod Doxygen is source code documentation; it's rare that anyone other than a developer writes it. (In some cases, you might have a junior developer documenting code after the fact, but I very much doubt that they'd put in their name as the author.) – Gnawme Jan 15 '12 at 05:19

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 14 '12 at 19:20

2

Here is an example of poetry in Perl. Flexible syntax allows to write so.

https://gist.github.com/1610861

Yes, programmers can be called code authors.

edited Jan 14 '12 at 19:20

answered Jan 14 '12 at 09:56

Taras

121
3

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 16 '18 at 22:51

It certainly used to be; "Author" is a reserved word in Cobol used in the Identification Division like this

Author: Ben Large.

to record the name of the programmer. I haven't come across it in any other language I've used and I've never heard people referring to themselves as Software Authors but you could claim the Cobol convention as a reason for using it if you want.

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 15 '12 at 14:48

In Spain and other European countries (France and Portugal at least), software cannot be patented; its commercial protection is achieved through intellectual property laws, the equivalent to the anglosaxon concept of copyright. Intellectual property laws, which explicitly include software, speak of a creator or author of the work being protected.

So I guess yes, author is a good term for someone who has created a piece of software.

Can programmers be called code authors?

6 Answers6

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