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From: mitchell@chance.uucp (George Mitchell)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Development vs Engineering
Message-ID: <123494@linus.mitre.org>
Date: 16 Oct 90 23:51:15 GMT
References: <5682@stpstn.UUCP> <1624@dschub.dsc.com>
Sender: usenet@linus.mitre.org
Reply-To: mitchell@chance.mitre.org (George Mitchell)
Organization: MITRE-Washington Software Engineering Center
Lines: 22

In article <1624@dschub.dsc.com> cdk@neptune.dsc.com (Colin Kelley) wrote:
`I see two problems which have kept software development from becoming an
`engineering endevour:
`
`- Software is built on hardware.  And the hardware has been changing at a
`  phenomenal rate.
The instruction set architectures have not changed much more rapidly
than the IC technologies.  HOL changes are slower yet.

`- Software is where you throw all the concepts which haven't been fleshed-out
`  yet!
This IS a problem.  Is the developer responsible for accepting an
undefined task?

`  [An interesting related question, though:  how can you get the software
`  interfaces generic enough that you really can plug modules together,
`  ala TTL?]
Could (object oriented) domain analysis help?
--
George Mitchell, MITRE, MS Z676, 7525 Colshire Dr, McLean, VA  22102
email: gmitchel@mitre.org  [alt: mitchell@community-chest.mitre.org]
vmail: 703/883-6029         FAX: 703/883-5519