Re: Ada, Software Engineering and "weirdoes" (was License to Steal)

[dvdeug@x8b4e53cd.dhcp.okstate.edu (David Starner)]

On Fri, 27 Apr 2001, Jeffrey Carter <jeffrey.carter@boeing.com> wrote:
> All the members of that sub-group received the MS SWSE, but that does
> not make them software engineers. Their inability to implement a simple
> piece of software in 15 weeks proves that they are coders. These were
> people with several years experience in software development as well as
> CS degrees. Clearly, neither education nor experience identify software
> engineers.

Saying coders = lousy programmers and software engineers = good
programmers is not a useful distinction, and it's somewhat arrogant
to boot. 

If making the distinction between a software programmer and an
software engineer is useful and meaningful, it has to do with the
design of code, not the speed of implementation. That you could code
their problem in 4 hours is not interesting. Was your code
documented? Was it maintainable? Did it follow a clear design plan?
Were the same style conventions used throughout the code? Was it
tested? Did it have a formal test structure? Many a programmer who
couldn't write structured, maintainable code to save his life can
churn out working (for common cases) code extremely fast.

-- 
David Starner - dstarner98@aasaa.ofe.org
Pointless website: http://dvdeug.dhis.org
"I don't care if Bill personally has my name and reads my email and 
laughs at me. In fact, I'd be rather honored." - Joseph_Greg