Re: Software Engineering is not a hoax... (was Re: Any research putting c above ada?)

[Craig Franck <clfranck@worldnet.att.net>]

jfbode@nospam.mail.earthlink.net (John Bode) wrote:

>I wouldn't call "computer science" an oxymoron -- most of the *theory* is
>based on solid mathematical principles.  It's just when we try to write
>something useful that we wind up blowing it.

The book learning part is easy; it is the practical application that 
is difficult. Also, I don't think anyone ever came up with a precise
mathematical definition or representation of "user friendly".

>The problem with using the term "software engineering" is that the practice
>of programming is still more art than science.  Computer programs are not
>like transistors, or gears, or steel I-beams that show up in real-world
>engineering.  We're not dealing with physical principles, but with the
>codification of thought.  Programming (in its current form) is more
>comparable to composing a symphony or writing a novel than building a
>bridge or designing a computer chip.  

Then you would be a "software author" or "instruction composer". You
write software. If you write novels or symphonies, your main goal may
be to communicate something of the human experience. You aren't doing
that with software. The essence of what you compose would be algorith-
matic in nature. (Game programmers may feel different, but designing
a game, and coding it are not the same thing. The person who decides
what artwork should go in a level is not always the person who wrote
the game engine.)

As far as comparing yourself to the person who composed a computer 
chip, I would say your relationship to him would be to evoke behavior
from the chip, and system as a whole. You can pick up a chip, or a 
transistor, and throw it against the wall; you can't pick up "behavior"
and physically throw it. Instead, you're a conjurer, or animator, of 
machines. A sort of re-animator of dead hunks of metal. "With these lines 
of code, I breath life into this creation. Yes! Yes! It's alive! It's
alive!" (Sorry, we just watched "Young Frankenstein"...)

>Regardless of what title I have (analyst, developer, software engineer), I
>am first and formost a programmer, because that is what I actually do.

Which is really a hodgepodge; for example, you must be able to analyze
algorithms and develop a strategy to organize your program, and time
spent programming.

-- 
Craig
clfranck@worldnet.att.net
Manchester, NH
BBN has the brightest bit-heads on the planet. -- David Goodtree