[shortsightedsid]

The question is really of role. What role does a star programmer play as opposed to a star software engineer. Ideally, a software engineer is supposed to bring in engineering qualities and therefore have a good idea of reliability, scalability, safety, error handling etc. A programmer on the other hand should ideally focus on getting the best of the platform/tools. So, I see an SE to be more broader but a P to have more depth.

[parham]

I was thinking the opposite, I would've though a SE is more specialised in one field, but a P has broad knowledge and hence is more flexible in how he/she applies that knowledge in order to develop a specific piece of software required by a client.