Xref: utzoo comp.software-eng:2512 comp.misc:7483
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From: sccowan@watmsg.waterloo.edu (S. Crispin Cowan)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Programmer productivity
Message-ID: <31986@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Date: 27 Nov 89 14:16:51 GMT
References: <16170@duke.cs.duke.edu> <34819@regenmeister.uucp> <16186@duke.cs.duke.edu>
Sender: daemon@watmath.waterloo.edu
Reply-To: sccowan@watmsg.waterloo.edu (S. Crispin Cowan)
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Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
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In article <16186@duke.cs.duke.edu> crm@romeo.UUCP (Charlie Martin) writes:
>Why then are they predictive?
In the software engineering course that I took, I was given to
understand that:
	-SLOC is about as accurate as any other measure devised
	-SLOC is accurate to within a factor of 2 to 4 (depending on
	 the application domain).  Big deal, so is tummy rubbing (i.e.
	 expert opinion based on experience).

Yes, there is a lot of good work already done in software engineering,
and a lot of good work yet to be done.  We know lots of things, most
of them relating to how NOT to do it.  Software engineering research
has not yet suceeded in making programming an engineering field, it's
still an art.  We WANT it to be engineering, life would be easier if
it were engineering, but I don't believe that it's so, yet.

>Charlie Martin (crm@cs.duke.edu,mcnc!duke!crm) 

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