[walod]

With WP I think it's a problem when people sell others pre-existing plugins and themes as their own work. I think a self proclaimed WP developer should at least know all there is to know about Theme development. That means they need to know all the wordpress internals as it relates to themes, hooks, filters, theme templates, custom post types, basic php logic, html, css, standards etc... They don't need to know plugin development, as plugins can contain so much and be basically anything, but by the time they know most of the theme aspects, they would be able to make basic plugins anyways. The problem is a lot of people don't even know those things, since pre-made plugins and themes make it easier to set up

[rtl49]

Incorporating themes and plugins strikes me as basically equivalent to using a framework written by a third party in your software product, which few would say disqualifies you as a "developer," even if you couldn't write framework components yourself. I'm not making claims about the amount of expertise required to be a WordPress developer, only whether the title could be appropriate for a person who cannot "write code."

[nofearinc]

I believe that what walod refers to is the astounding number of people calling themselves "developers" while installing vanilla WordPress with a few plugins and a theme, and changing a few admin options. There's certainly nothing wrong in using WordPress as a framework (which many of us do to cut down time wasted on building CRUD and ACL and DB layers etc), it's just that now everyone is suddenly a WordPress developer once they know how to install WordPress from the web host's admin panel.

[rtl49]

Yes, I understand. My main message is that it seems a software developer need not be a programmer in the sense of writing code as we currently conceptualize it. It isn't hard to imagine a future where ordinary people can create their own software using primarily visual tools, as I presume WordPress developers do.

I'm also obliquely objecting to the lionization of software developers in general, as much software development is glorified plumbing, while some of it is among the most intellectually challenging work available. If one is going to take pride in one's job, I tend to think it should result from the work itself, rather than the job title.

[nofearinc]

I don't mind the job being done by people building products with visual tools. I just believe that the "developer" title has a unified and consistent meaning across different platforms, languages, communities and what not, and new types of services (like composing elements with visual builders) need a new title to avoid ambiguity - say, site builders, webmasters, implementers, super admins or so forth.

That would be more than sufficient - creating a new job group for people with similar skills and service offerings, allowing SMB clients to reach out to those and large businesses connecting with developers.