>>Software isn't engineering unless you're in aerospace, most software is so fragile if you look under the hood it should properly scare you. Some code you look at and you wonder how on earth it made it this long in production without breaking or anybody stumbling into it.
I'm really tired of these "software isn't engineering because..." arguments. I think the first thing we need to do in order to have our profession move on to the next stage of maturity is to stop relying on arbitrary definitions and lines in the sand regarding what engineering is.
Let's look at the Wikipedia definition:
"Engineering (from Latin ingenium, meaning "cleverness" and ingeniare, meaning "to contrive, devise") is the application of scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge in order to invent, design, build, maintain, research, and improve structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes."
That's it. By this definition, software development is engineering. Note that it doesn't say anything about how robust the structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes must be in order for the profession to count as engineering. Even the most fragile thing could have been designed and built by an engineer.
The root of the word is actually interesting: it comes from the Latin word "ingenium", which means "cleverness." This is especially important in our field since a large part of software development involves clever hacks. Think about that next time you frown upon such a hack.
> I'm really tired of these "software isn't engineering because..." arguments. I think the first thing we need to do in order to have our profession move on to the next stage of maturity is to stop relying on arbitrary definitions and lines in the sand regarding what engineering is.
The inferiority complex with regards to "engineering"[1] seems to run deep in many programmers' mind.
[1] Which is a very, very broad term to begin with in this day and age, anyway.
I'm really tired of these "software isn't engineering because..." arguments. I think the first thing we need to do in order to have our profession move on to the next stage of maturity is to stop relying on arbitrary definitions and lines in the sand regarding what engineering is.
Let's look at the Wikipedia definition:
"Engineering (from Latin ingenium, meaning "cleverness" and ingeniare, meaning "to contrive, devise") is the application of scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge in order to invent, design, build, maintain, research, and improve structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes."
That's it. By this definition, software development is engineering. Note that it doesn't say anything about how robust the structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes must be in order for the profession to count as engineering. Even the most fragile thing could have been designed and built by an engineer.
The root of the word is actually interesting: it comes from the Latin word "ingenium", which means "cleverness." This is especially important in our field since a large part of software development involves clever hacks. Think about that next time you frown upon such a hack.