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"Computer Science" is Not Science and "Software Engineering" is Not Engineering

geocities.com

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Re: "Computer Science" is Not Science and "Software Engineering" is Not Engineering

#2

Post by currywurst »

My favourite quote from the article "... studies suggest that the paradigm or language that a given developer is most comfortable with is the one that makes them the most productive. This would mean that to get optimum productivity, hire a bunch of like-minded developers who are fanatics of a given language or tool."

Re: "Computer Science" is Not Science and "Software Engineering" is Not Engineering

#4

Post by foldingstock »

"But we don't have this in software designs for the most part. We have the requirements, such as what the input and output looks like and the run-time constraints which dictate the maximum time a given operation is allowed to take. But there is much in-between these that is elusive to objective metrics. "

I pretty much stopped reading here. Elusive to objective metrics? I agree that you can't measure a program like you would a bridge, using physical laws such as physics and chemistry, but you very well can measure many aspects of it such as: efficiency, size, required resources, relative ease of use, etc. Just because it is not a physical thing doesn't mean we can't use a "scientific method" approach, we just need to be open to using metrics that exist in the digital realm.

Re: "Computer Science" is Not Science and "Software Engineering" is Not Engineering

#5

Post by Juniper »

Reminds me of the statement by I think H. Abelson though it might have been Sussman (from their SICP video lecture 1)that goes something like :

Computer Science is not a science and it's not about computers. Computer science is only about computers in the same way that physics is about particle accelerators.

That was the gist of it anyway

Re: "Computer Science" is Not Science and "Software Engineering" is Not Engineering

#7

Post by polshaw »

As someone with an engineering degree, it does irk me to constantly hear programmers referred to around these quarters as 'engineers', it's extremely introspective, and IMO a little disrespectful. Similarly to the 'are you technical?' thing, why is there such an aversion to the term programmer or software developer?

I have no problem with the term 'software engineers', as i do seem some parallels, and it is clear what you are talking about, but please leave the straight up 'engineering' term to those dealing with the physical world.

E: most replies and downvoters seem to have missed that I have no problem with the term where it is unambiguous. You wouldn't call a software architect simply 'an architect' (would you?).

Re: "Computer Science" is Not Science and "Software Engineering" is Not Engineering

#9

Post by polshaw »

foldingstock wrote: post #4

"But we don't have this in software designs for the most part. We have the requirements, such as what the input and output looks like and the run-time constraints which dictate the maximum time a given operation is allowed to take. But there is much in-between these that is elusive to objective metrics. " I pretty much stopped reading here. Elusive to objective metrics? I agree that you can't measure a program like y…

All of your points could be applied to, say, a manager in a business, but nobody would call them a employee engineer or business scientist.
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