This sort of snobbery is pretty silly. Do you think engineers didn't exist throughout all of history until someone decided to start handing out pieces of paper?
The OP squabbling about someone calling themselves a "software engineer" is just being silly. Where it matters in the US, the term "professional engineer" exists for exactly this distinction.
Bold strategy.
For example, a software engineer.
> Stop looking for "gotchas", especially ones that demonstrate a lack of reading comprehension.
The irony is palpable.
There's no irony here sadly. You're just engaging in the worst sort of pedantry: attempting to be pedantic about something you're wrong about.
Software developers have a tendency to call themselves "engineers" based loosely on what they do (software engineering, or at least development) rather than based on them holding an engineering degree and/or professional designation. I'm neither a software dev nor an engineer, and I initially found it confusing when I'd come to a forum like this and see people say "I'm a software engineer" or "I work as a software engineer for X" without actually having any of the aforementioned credentials.
In contrast, I don't think people are so blase about using the term "engineer" casually in other contexts, or even other areas of engineering. Folks calling themselves mechanical engineers, or electrical engineers...actually are engineers. As for the example you gave of a "car doctor", it is evident that people might use the term "doctor" in such a way as to show they're not actually doctors, which is not the case in the present context. I don't see mechanics referring to themselves as just doctors, or describing what they do with cars as medicine.
And, no, this sort of thing didn't exist before the pieces of paper, for obvious reasons.
If so, the OP is still not an engineer unless he’s writing software for weapons.
In the end, anyone lying to their client about the standards their software adheres to is not undertaking engineering.
Feel free to call yourself a software engineer (or even a software doctor). The titles aren’t controlled and as a result don’t really mean anything.
Another example: the University of Alberta has a software engineering program.
https://www.ualberta.ca/computing-science/research/research-...
Search on Canadian job sites and you will find hundreds of software engineering jobs across Canada (including Alberta).
Other examples of non-PE engineers include stationary engineer (people who operate boilers) and locomotive engineer (people who operate trains). They may have their own regulations, but it is entirely distinct from Professional Engineers.
It's a bit complicated. In Oregon, for example, someone was fined $500 in 2015 for referring to themselves an engineer; although they had an engineering degree, they were not a licensed professional engineer. The state law was invalidated in 2018.
https://ij.org/press-release/oregon-engineer-wins-traffic-li...
I think some introspection may be required here.