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=-2.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,30a7e825312b39d8 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news1.google.com!proxad.net!usenet-fr.net!enst.fr!melchior!cuivre.fr.eu.org!melchior.frmug.org!not-for-mail From: "Alexander E. Kopilovich" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Software Engineering Ethics Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005 21:14:43 +0300 (MSK) Organization: Cuivre, Argent, Or Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: lovelace.ada-france.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: melchior.cuivre.fr.eu.org 1105208267 28034 212.85.156.195 (8 Jan 2005 18:17:47 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@melchior.cuivre.fr.eu.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005 18:17:47 +0000 (UTC) To: comp.lang.ada@ada-france.org Return-Path: In-Reply-To: ; from Jeffrey Carter at Sat, 08 Jan 2005 00:48:37 GMT X-Mailer: Mail/@ [v2.45 MSDOS] X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new-20030616-p10 (Debian) at ada-france.org X-BeenThere: comp.lang.ada@ada-france.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Gateway to the comp.lang.ada Usenet newsgroup" List-Unsubscribe: , List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-Original-Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:7571 Date: 2005-01-08T21:14:43+03:00 Jeffrey Carter wrote: > I've seen some ads for a position converting an Ada application to C++. > They say they'll train you in C++, as if that were some sort of attraction. > > Principle 3 of the ACM/IEEE-CS Software Engineering Code of Ethics says, > "Software engineers shall ensure that their products and related > modifications meet the highest professional standards possible." > > Principle 6 says, "Software engineers shall advance the integrity and > reputation of the profession." > > Isn't anyone who takes this job automatically in breach of these principles? There is a faith-based ethics and a caste-based ethics. Principle 3, which you mentioned, reflects faith-based approach to ethics, while Principle 6 reflects caste-based approach to ethics. For an individual, perticipation in porting from Ada to C++ may (or may not) constitite some breach of Principle 3, but at the same time it may count as his/her increased support for Principle 6. Therefore, even for informed (and not too hungry) individual this is a matter of rather subtle choice. And after all. there are programmers/software engineers who are able to do porting from Ada to C++ without a breach of any reasonable ethics... just because they understand the matters deeply enough. (We have here in c.l.a. at least one obvious example of such a person.) Alexander Kopilovich aek@vib.usr.pu.ru Saint-Petersburg Russia