Re: Software Engineering in Florida

["M." <me@home.xx>]

Robert I. Eachus wrote in message <3828A2D7.F23C91AE@mitre.org>...
>4) If we get to the point of having a PE test for software engineers,
>which might be a good idea, it should have NOTHING to do with any
>academic course of study.  Software Engineering and programming
>are both crafts, but in the case of programming some classroom
>time is helpful if not necessary.  But the one thing I have seen
>demonstrated over and over in the past twenty years is that
>software engineering cannot be taught in classrooms.

Electrical engineering can't be taught in classrooms without appropriate
design projects on the side (and I mean _design_ projects, with engineering
notebooks and design documentation.  Not "turn in a circuit/program that
works.").  Is this what you mean?

>> How many people who call themselves software engineers could pass the
>> Professional Engineers exam?  How many reading this message?  That is
>> the criteria by which one is allowed to add the initials, PE, to a
>> business card or letterhead.  If one cannot pass the PE exam, one is
>> not, by commonly accepted standards, an engineer.
>
>  I'd guess very few, but many if not most of those reading this message
>probably qualify.  However, your last statement is incorrect.  You can
>be considered an engineer without taking the PE exam,

You can be considered one, and even call yourself one if you are an employee
of a company.  But in some states you can't do business directly with the
public as an "engineer" unless you have qualified for and passed the exam.
(By the way, I am not a lawyer, and these are not professional legal
opinions.)

>  It is an old hornet's nest, but it's time has come again.  I
>personnally think that what is needed is a guild of sofware engineering,
>rather than a professional society, and that when I retire the worldmay
>be ready for one.

I think this is completely unnecessary, not only because it is too
restrictive, but also because it's necessarily vague on the qualifications
for a "masterpiece."  Furthermore, I think professional societies for
software (esp. the IEEE CS) are underutilized.

M.