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Meaningless rant, and quite incorrect.

this guy must be a manger >.. even the first statement
Do people's lives depend on your code.. is funny.. software runs all the medical electronics, airplane control towers.. I mean .. one bug in a critical system could mean real bad news.

Correct! Programming is an Art, Science, *and* Engineering Discipline.

Don't forget a branch of mathematics!

* Could someone's life depend on the code you write?
As explained by the above post, yes! medical equipments, nuclear plants, airplane pilot system, you name it!

* Do you have a degree in software engineering?
Not sure what you mean here. I'm in computer science and software engineering specialist...But the degree says Bachelor of Science.

* Are you a member of an engineering association?
Hmmm, ever heard of IEEE?

* Do you have standards to uphold?
A host of them from IEEE, W3C and others

* Do you have a professional code of ethics?
Yes.
* Are you held accountable for your work?
C'mon...of course

* Can someone reproduce your work, using established processes and the documentation that you created?
* Can you assure that what you have created is correct?
There are some measures, not infallible but again, what is?

* Do you understand the degree of robustness and reliability of your system?

* Do you perform risk analysis, and understand risk management?
Er...ya.
* Are your processes documented?
To achieve higher level of CMM (Capability Maturity Model), your company has to have a set of complete, repeatable and documented process.

Programmers have a extremely wide range of talents. The author's point is that many programmers don't write life-and-death applications, aren't members of any professional society, don't follow formal application development documentation and simply don't approach the level to be called engineers. We all know there's tons of people doing valid work but that doesn't mean they are pros.