Care to explain a bit your choice of word ? Funny how I often heard about the user / programmer dichotomy. Always just felt like a user in the know.

I'd divide it as essentially "User of Packages" vs. "Writer of Packages", and of course, the dichotomy is not actually a clear one. But the choice was to suggest that there are some people for whom the programming language and its libraries are not an end of itself, and "Just crack it open and write your own thing for X..." is essentially a non-starter.

I think it's useful to distinguish between the two groups, because not only do they have different skill sets, but they have different motivations. For example I will never directly be evaluated on the performance or style of my code in the way a programmer might be - only the paper that code helped me write.

Seems like it has to do with the end result. If your goal is to make an app, then you have to program that app. So you are a programmer.

If you want something quick, maybe throwaway-able, you pick something to use for that, and you are a user.

You could build a program with that throwaway script without being a programmer though. Just like I can build a house without being a carpenter.

That's my interpretation though.