Re: [xml-dev] [offtopic] The Airplane Example (was Re: [xml-dev]Streaming XML)

[Bill de hÓra <bill.dehora@propylon.com>]

Benjamin Franz wrote:
> On Fri, 31 Dec 2004, Benjamin Franz wrote:

> To close this topic: Far from being prophetic, I am now speaking 
> _historically_. I had not noticed before, but in 1998 the State of Texas 
> added 'Software Engineer' to the list of legally licensed Engineering 
> specialities.
> 
> <URL:http://www.aitp.org/newsletter/2003julaug/article16.htm>
> 
>   "A software engineer is a licensed professional engineer who is schooled
>    and skilled in the application of engineering discipline to the
>    creation of software. A software engineer is often confused with a
>    programmer, but the two are vastly different disciplines.
> 
>    While a programmer creates the codes that make a program run, a
>    software engineer creates the designs the programmer implements. 

"Design" is one of the most encompassing words we have. I tend to think 
that code is the technical design in a software system as I would liken 
code to engineering/tool drawings and blueprints, over stuff like UML 
and technical design documents. Fwiw, All the engineering training I did 
seem to boil down to three things 1) solid math/physics underpinnings 2) 
understanding physical properties of materials with respect to a given 
environment 3) determining cost optimal ratios for a project with 
respect to and 1 and 2. As far as software goes, I only have an analogy 
for the 1 and I suspect that has something to do with the state of art 
in software practice being pretty thin, when you get down it.

On the other hand trying to delineate what's engineering and what's 
alchemy in a software sense is no bad thing ; I would just expect that 
Texas legislature will need to evolve over time in that regard as will 
the thinking coming out of the likes of the IEEE and the ACM.

cheers
Bill