Xref: utzoo comp.object:3188 comp.software-eng:5354 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!apple!arc!arc!steve From: steve@Advansoft.COM (Steve Savitzky) Newsgroups: comp.object,comp.software-eng Subject: Re: Documenting OO Systems Message-ID: Date: 15 Apr 91 22:07:39 GMT References: <3201:Apr705:40:4591@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> <1899:Apr1206:12:4991@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> <1991Apr12.201053.18348@visix.com> Sender: @advansoft.com Organization: Advansoft Research Corp, Santa Clara, CA Lines: 34 In-Reply-To: amanda@visix.com's message of 12 Apr 91 20:10:53 GMT In article <1991Apr12.201053.18348@visix.com> amanda@visix.com (Amanda Walker) writes: brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) writes: Every working definition of ``engineering'' appears to exclude computer science. Indeed. A large software project is, in my experience, more like a book than it is like a building. Do we call novelists "prose engineers?" Do we call movie producers "audio-visual entertainment engineers?" No, and I don't think we should. My business card says "software engineer," and I do what is usually called "software engineering," but I think that it's a misnomer. The tax return for my at-home-on-the-side business says "author"; I write software, prose, and songs, and find that the three activities are more similar than different. Perhaps we should start borrowing our terminology from the arts: "producer" for the person who puts up the money and controls the budget, "director" for the one with overall artistic control, "designer" for the one who creates the look and feel of the project, and "writer" for the ones doing the programming and the technical writing (hopefully mostly the same people). Part of my problem is that, put simply, I don't think we know enough about what software is to make it into an engineering discipline or a trade. Software is so mutable and responsive that I can't think of its creation and manipulation as anything except an artistic disclipline. I think Knuth was absolutely right when he called his book "The Art of Computer Programming". It's possible to treat software as a product of engineering only when it's embedded in a non-interactive system. As soon as the software has a user interface, artistic considerations take over. -- \ --Steve Savitzky-- \ ADVANsoft Research Corp \ REAL hackers use an AXE! \ \ steve@advansoft.COM \ 4301 Great America Pkwy \ #include \ \ arc!steve@apple.COM \ Santa Clara, CA 95954 \ 408-727-3357 \ \__ steve@arc.UUCP _________________________________________________________