From: "Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-93" <condicma@PWFL.COM>
Subject: Re: Software Engineering and Dreamers
Date: 1997/05/28
Date: 1997-05-28T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <97052809252505@psavax.pwfl.com> (raw)
Kaz Kylheku <kaz@VISION.CREST.NT.COM> writes:
>Examples: writing software is not engineering, and the result is not
>technology, because principles of physics are not required to understand the
>internal semantics of software systems. Designing a pure logic circuit isn't
>engineering either, except when you have to solve implementation problems
>related to heat dissipation, capacitive or inductive coupling and other
>artifacts related to the _technology_.
>
I'd have to disagree on some points here: Writing software may not
be engineering, but engineering can involve writing software.
Engineering does not require the application of physics - it
requires the application of rules. Consider the spectrum: Art,
Craft, Engineering, Science. Art is where software used to be 20
years ago where some highly talented people just seemed to do it
right. Craft got introduced as the experience base was built,
research was done etc. Some standard "tricks of the trade" (like
structured programming, data structures, etc.) got introduced and
you had a "craft." Engineering has built on those "tricks of the
trade" and started to produce much more formalized rules for the
development of software. I'm not sure we're entirely there yet,
but we've at least started the task. The "Science" part would come
about when we've taken the formalized rules and established them
as principles that can be verified by measurement and experiment.
(Sort of going from "it always works that way - trust me" to "it
works that way because of X and I can show you by the following
experiment..."
As for the "technology" debate - consider that the "ology" part
means "study" and you can see that the word is about the study of
technique. Anybody who has a technique for doing something which
is studied and understood is in possession of a technology. I can
have a technology for building obsidian tipped spears or a
technology for building silicon transistors or a technology for
building database software. Technology itself doesn't imply
physics.
I think it may have been Heisenberg who said "all science is
either physics or it's stamp collecting". Perhaps that puts
"Computer Science" in the stamp collecting mode, but no less so
than Botany. That doesn't mean it can't be a "science"
Just my 2p
MDC
Marin David Condic, Senior Computer Engineer ATT: 561.796.8997
Pratt & Whitney, GESP Fax: 561.796.4669
West Palm Beach, FL Internet: CONDICMA@PWFL.COM
===============================================================================
"The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the
strong - but that's the way to bet."
-- Damon Runyon
===============================================================================
next reply other threads:[~1997-05-28 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 97+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1997-05-28 0:00 Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-93 [this message]
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
1997-05-29 0:00 Software Engineering and Dreamers Fritz W Feuerbacher
1997-05-30 0:00 ` Kevin Cline
1997-05-30 0:00 ` system
1997-05-31 0:00 ` Lawrence Kirby
1997-06-02 0:00 ` Philip Brashear
1997-05-31 0:00 ` Kevin Cline
1997-05-27 0:00 Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-93
1997-05-26 0:00 tmoran
1997-05-26 0:00 tmoran
1997-05-15 0:00 Any research putting c above ada? Jon S Anthony
1997-05-19 0:00 ` Michael Norrish
1997-05-20 0:00 ` Jon S Anthony
1997-05-20 0:00 ` Michael Norrish
1997-05-20 0:00 ` Kaz Kylheku
1997-05-22 0:00 ` Software Engineering is not a hoax... (was Re: Any research putting c above ada?) Robert I. Eachus
1997-05-22 0:00 ` Software Engineering and Dreamers Nick Roberts
1997-05-22 0:00 ` Tom Moran
1997-05-25 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-05-26 0:00 ` David Ray
1997-05-23 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1997-05-23 0:00 ` Kaz Kylheku
1997-05-24 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-05-24 0:00 ` jason hummel
1997-05-25 0:00 ` Craig Franck
1997-05-26 0:00 ` Kaz Kylheku
1997-05-26 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-05-27 0:00 ` Jon S Anthony
1997-05-27 0:00 ` Dann Corbit
1997-05-26 0:00 ` Craig Franck
1997-05-27 0:00 ` Kaz Kylheku
1997-05-28 0:00 ` Fritz W Feuerbacher
1997-05-29 0:00 ` Craig Franck
1997-05-29 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-05-26 0:00 ` Fritz W Feuerbacher
1997-05-26 0:00 ` Kaz Kylheku
1997-05-26 0:00 ` tstcroix
1997-05-27 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-05-27 0:00 ` Kaz Kylheku
1997-05-28 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-05-31 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1997-06-02 0:00 ` Jon S Anthony
1997-06-09 0:00 ` Ralph Silverman
1997-05-27 0:00 ` Jon S Anthony
1997-05-28 0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1997-05-27 0:00 ` system
1997-05-27 0:00 ` Kaz Kylheku
1997-05-28 0:00 ` Rich Miller
1997-05-28 0:00 ` Bryce Bardin
1997-05-28 0:00 ` Lawrence Kirby
1997-05-29 0:00 ` Matthew S. Whiting
1997-05-29 0:00 ` Nick Leaton
1997-05-28 0:00 ` Kaz Kylheku
1997-05-28 0:00 ` Fritz W Feuerbacher
1997-05-29 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-05-29 0:00 ` Kaz Kylheku
1997-05-30 0:00 ` Vibrating Bum-Faced Goats
1997-05-30 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-02 0:00 ` Jon S Anthony
1997-06-02 0:00 ` Mathew Hendry
1997-06-03 0:00 ` Craig Franck
1997-06-03 0:00 ` Matthew S. Whiting
1997-06-03 0:00 ` Spaceman Spiff
1997-06-03 0:00 ` John Winters
1997-06-02 0:00 ` Mathew Hendry
1997-06-03 0:00 ` Martin C. Carlisle
1997-06-08 0:00 ` Joe Charlier
1997-06-09 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-17 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1997-06-04 0:00 ` John Winters
1997-06-06 0:00 ` Volker Hetzer
1997-06-06 0:00 ` Mathew Hendry
1997-06-08 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-09 0:00 ` Jonathan Guthrie
1997-06-09 0:00 ` Mathew Hendry
1997-06-11 0:00 ` Jonathan Guthrie
1997-06-11 0:00 ` Mathew Hendry
1997-06-17 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1997-06-09 0:00 ` Craig Franck
1997-06-08 0:00 ` Jason Shankel
1997-06-09 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-08 0:00 ` John G. Volan
1997-06-09 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-09 0:00 ` John G. Volan
1997-06-10 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
[not found] ` <19970606.49CA70..12B91@ae124.du.pipex.com>
1997-06-07 0:00 ` Lawrence Kirby
1997-06-09 0:00 ` W. Wesley Groleau (Wes)
1997-06-10 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-10 0:00 ` W. Wesley Groleau (Wes)
1997-06-07 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-08 0:00 ` Mathew Hendry
1997-06-03 0:00 ` Ed Prochak - Woodland Consultants
1997-06-02 0:00 ` Nick Roberts
1997-06-07 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-06-02 0:00 ` Jon S Anthony
1997-06-06 0:00 ` Fritz W Feuerbacher
1997-06-06 0:00 ` Joe Charlier
1997-06-04 0:00 ` S. Norby
1997-05-30 0:00 ` Vibrating Bum-Faced Goats
1997-05-23 0:00 ` Mark Allen Framness
1997-05-23 0:00 ` Mark Allen Framness
1997-05-23 0:00 ` Kaz Kylheku
1997-05-24 0:00 ` Bill Anderson
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