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From: Robert Dewar <robert_dewar@my-deja.com>
Subject: Re: Software Engineering in Florida
Date: 1999/11/08
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In article <804plo$dvs$1@nntp5.atl.mindspring.net>,
  Richard D Riehle <laoXhai@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> Is software engineering simply an attractive oxymoron?
                                               ^^^^^^^^

I assume you mean contradiction in terms (I see no possible
interesting literary effect in this particular phrase :-)

> One of my
> degrees is in software engineering, and I am still not sure
> there is such as thing as "engineering" when speaking of
> software.  It  seems to be, rather, an emerging discipline
> with more to emerge
> before we can really call it engineering.

I disagree, engineering has nothing to do with the state of
development of a discipline, but rather with the *kind* of
discipline. It is clear to me that the activities of building
software are fundamentally similar to other engineering
activities.

> What is the difference between the effort of a methodical
> programmer and a software engineer.  Here is Silicon Valley,
> every programmer is
> now calling himself/herself a software engineer.  The term has
> lost any meaning it may have had.

Well to many people programming means coding, so that is in
fact a useful term, to emphasize that coding is just one
aspect of the total engineering effort.



<We tout Ada as a software engineering language>

I hope not, this is a useless idea, almost as useless as
object oriented programming language :-)

Languages are tools in which you can do many things. Calling
a programming language a software engineering language is
like calling a hammer a "fine furniture building hammer" :-)


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