Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!crdgw1!uunet!igor!rutabaga!jls From: jls@rutabaga.Rational.COM (Jim Showalter) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: What is Software Engineering ??? Message-ID: Date: 12 Apr 91 18:52:19 GMT References: <1991Apr9.114709.7695@cc.curtin.edu.au> <1991Apr11.115142.6595@lonex.radc.af.mil> Sender: news@Rational.COM Lines: 25 >I have yet to be able to go to my hardware store and buy the >universal solvent (it seems packaging it becomes a problem). Likewise, I >haven't run into software engineering techniques that apply to every situation. There is no engineering technique in ANY engineering discipline that applies to every situation. Civil engineers use different tools and approaches depending on the application domain: you don't build a nuclear power plant the same way you build a retaining wall. Specialists arise in engineering disciplines familiar with the generally-accepted tools and techniques for a PARTICULAR kind of problem. That software is no different is not surprising. The difference with software is that there are often no generally-accepted tools and techniques: THAT'S where we are still more an art than a science (all engineering disciplines still retain some portion that is art). Considering the youth of software, the lack of standardization is not surprising. Being a software engineer for 30 years is like being a civil engineer for six THOUSAND years. In software, we recently discovered the arch... -- * The opinions expressed herein are my own, except in the realm of software * * engineering, in which case I borrowed them from incredibly smart people. * * * * Rational: cutting-edge software engineering technology and services. *