Hacker, programmer, developer, coder, and engineer are terms used by different groups to denote the same people. So the difference is mainly what they say about the speaker.
Very true. "A friend of mine" was writing some ad copy for a job req. "his" employer was trying to fill, and wanted to use the word "hacker" in the headline. (E.g. "Looking for a great hacker", or somesuch.) The (oursourced, non-technical) HR dept. would not permit the use of that word, as it sounded too much like advertising for someone to break the law. I've always believed that these terms told you a lot about the…
Heh. I've had a similar problem. I do recruiting for investment banks, and sometimes the job spec says 'developer' but the job description clearly calls for a hacker. Financial HR departments are usually pretty forgiving when they can plausibly deny responsibility, though.