Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!usc!samsung!sdd.hp.com!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!boingo.med.jhu.edu!haven!mimsy!tove.cs.umd.edu!cml From: cml@tove.cs.umd.edu (Christopher Lott) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: Effect of execution-speed on reliability/testing Message-ID: <29463@mimsy.umd.edu> Date: 23 Jan 91 18:26:05 GMT References: <10061@as0c.sei.cmu.edu> <10185@as0c.sei.cmu.edu> Sender: news@mimsy.umd.edu Reply-To: cml@tove.cs.umd.edu (Christopher Lott) Organization: The University of Maryland Dept of Computer Science Lines: 27 In article <10185@as0c.sei.cmu.edu> rsd@sei.cmu.edu (Richard S D'Ippolito) writes: >Science is discovery through hypothesis testing (in books, anyway, where >serendipity is ignored); engineering fabricating from the known. Engineers >build what they already know how to build, with only small differences >allowed between successive designs. We would never award a contract to a >engineering firm that has never build a bridge before. I agree with Mr. D. up to a point, but.... someone built the first cable-suspension bridge. the first hydroelectric dam. the first stealth bomber. the first rotary engine. the first vlsi chip. the first tunnel across the english channel. even the first light bulb. I would call these engineering problems, of various sizes. Yet they certainly involved much empirical testing (e.g., lightbulb). My argument is that there's a good mix of engineering and science in these large projects. I claim the same thing for software projects. If one argues that having built a large jet plane gives one the skills to build a stealth, then a similar argument goes for software. Hey, it's only software, right? )-: chris... -- Christopher Lott Dept of Comp Sci, Univ of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 cml@cs.umd.edu 4122 AV Williams Bldg 301-405-2721