Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!sei!bwb
From: bwb@sei.cmu.edu (Bruce Benson)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: CASE - The Emperor has no clothes on!
Message-ID: <7486@fy.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 11 Jun 90 15:03:33 GMT
References: <37538@genrad.UUCP>
Organization: Software Engineering Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 40
In-Reply-To: <5190@stpstn.UUCP>

In article <5190@stpstn.UUCP> you write:
>
>The trouble with Computer Aided Software Engineering is that it presumes
>the existence of such a thing as Software Engineering.
>
>How can robust engineering or even scientific practices ever develop in
>a field so long as *everything* is reinvented from first principles?

Does this failure to exercise discipline really imply a lack of engineering
know how?  Maybe it is still just too costly for what you get out of it?

How much has bridge building changed since the first bridge was built? Sure
the techniques and materials have changed dramatically, but a bridge of
today would still be recognized by a builder of centuries past.  The same
for buildings.  

In software we seem to always push the limit, it gets larger and more
complex - always at the limit of what we can do.  Doesn't a 4GL that 
generates database update and report applications represent the bridge 
construct?  The better we understand (and do not vary) the application
the better we get at generating it.

Isn't what we are trying to achieve with Software Engineering simply a 
restricted subset of the GPS (General Problem Solving) Algorithms of the
past decades?  Are we not trying to create a general problem solving (and
construction) algorithm by trying to find an effective software engineering
method that works for everything?

Are we not trying to solve problems we have not yet defined?  Those we have
defined, I agree, we don't always use the engineering disciplines that
we do know are effective.

Just wondering....

Bruce

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