Microsoft Nomenclature for Developers
It's slightly strange to think about but at Microsoft we have a certain internal culture around how we label things and the names that we choose for particular things. I just have a few terms that I have thought of off hand. What's strange is that there are some subtle differences when we think of terms.
For example consider how we talk about pieces of code:
Code Example - A small piece of code that shows specific functionality of an API. We sometimes refer to code examples as code snippets. If you look at this introduction to programming for Windows, you will find lots of small pieces of code that we refer to as code examples.
Code Sample - A complete operational application and its' associated solution and project files. We sometimes refer to code samples simply as samples. Plenty of Windows code samples can be found on MSDN Code Gallery.
What I have been thinking about lately is how do people classify themselves? What are the first terms that come to mind when people are talking about the software creators targeting Windows? At Microsoft, the term is really clear. We call them Developers. Developers, developers, developers. But I feel like many developers self-identify as something else, programmers. As small a difference as this may seem, it makes a huge difference for search. Since we've so carefully targeted the term developers in our content, it may make it hard for "developers" to find the communities that Microsoft has created for them. A more common term that I have seen is programmers. At any rate, another pro tip if you are trying to find Microsoft's official resources like forums and samples. Search with the term developers. In the mean time, we'll be trying to create some content targeting the term programmers so that those who don't self-identify as developers but instead as coders or programmers can find us when they search.
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