From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,1042f393323e22da X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 109fba,1042f393323e22da X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,1042f393323e22da X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public From: kaz@ncrshn39.crest.nt.com (Kaz Kylheku) Subject: Re: Software Engineering is not a hoax... Date: 1997/06/12 Message-ID: <5npnmm$n2f@bcrkh13.bnr.ca>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 247968872 References: <3385B67B.1439@msim.co.uk.spamstop> <01bc7746$c7475c50$fc00af88@godiva> Organization: /usr/local/lib/news/organization Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.ada Date: 1997-06-12T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article <01bc7746$c7475c50$fc00af88@godiva>, Keith Shillington wrote: >Ahem. Amen. Agreed. > >In fact, I'd swing out onto the thin ice on the skinny branches and say >that to "code" more than that breeches the boundaries between software >engineering and, well, let's not mince terms here, hacking. And, home is a >great place to hack. I don't want to knock hacking. I love to hack. >There's something wonderful about tinkering, like writing HTML in VI; like >counting the number of clock cycles in a loop to see if some blindingly >fast operation can be made faster; not because it needs to be, but because >it can be. This, on the other hand, tends to be inappropriate in an >environment where the software you (I, we) are writing ultimately will wind >up on someone elses plate to be maintained. > >Robert Dewar pontificated: >| William said: >| >| <| 10-15% of my time writing software. The rest of it is to do with >| documentation, design, version control, project management, bug reports, >| etc etc. At home though I'm a programmer!>> >| >| I can only understand this if you replace "writing software" with >| "coding". To me documentation, design, version control, project >management, >| bug reports etc etc are an *integral part* of what writing software is >| all about. I disagree that things like project management are the integral characteristic of engineering. Does this mean that without managers, engineering would not be possible? ;) Here is an interesting little quote from the writing of one Robert Baber: I should emphasize at this poitn that by `software engineering' I mean an approach to the preparation for, and practice of, our vocation which engineers in other fields would recognize as exhibiting basic characteristics typical of their fields. Some of the topics subsumed today under the term `software engineering' do not satisfy this criterion. Systematizing work in a restricted technical sense, using well-honed tools, applying management principles (e.g. relating to project management) to the organization of our work, etc., useful as these may be, do not represent the essence of engineering and are not sufficient to transform our occupation into a professional engineering field. Among other things, practitioners must acquire and apply to their work an extensive knowledge based on a thorough undrstanding of fundamental, immutable principles of a mathematical and theoretical nature and of lasting validity, and they must be willing to accept responsibility for the correctness of their designs. [_The Spine of Software: Designing Provably Correct Software: Theory and Practice_, Baber, Robert Laurence, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 1987, P. 14]