Xref: utzoo comp.software-eng:5407 comp.object:3260 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!news.cs.indiana.edu!kitchel@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu From: kitchel@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Sid Kitchel) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng,comp.object Subject: Re: Documenting OO Systems Message-ID: <1991Apr19.094250.14333@news.cs.indiana.edu> Date: 19 Apr 91 14:42:33 GMT References: <1899:Apr1206:12:4991@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> <1991Apr12.201053.18348@visix.com> <764@uecok.ECOK.EDU> <1991Apr19.052836.15679@tkou02.enet.dec.com> Organization: Computer Science, Indiana University Lines: 37 diamond@jit345.swstokyo.dec.com (Norman Diamond) writes: |->Wrong conclusion, I think. Engineering IS (partly) the study of |->situations that are incompletely understood. If a bridge will be |->a clone of an existing bridge (if it were possible to know that |->without having to do any studies to change unknown information |->into known information), then there will be no engineering work |->involved. If the conditions are slightly different from anywhere |->else, if study has to be done to understand the exact situation |->and to decide which scientific laws to apply to each part of the |->problem, that is engineering. Yep!! This is the Engineering School party line: engineering is the application of scientific law to practical problems. This (rather modern) definition of engineering is the basis for many REAL engineers being curious or critical of the use of "software engineer" as a title. But being argumentative and a reformed historian of science, I am forced to point out that engineering existed and succeeded long before Galileo and other Renaissance types invented the scientific study of strength of materials. Those many miles of Roman aquaduct still functioning in France and Spain do not know that the engineers that built them missed the 4 or 5 years at Purdue or MIT. Those Roman engineers succeeded without having "to decide which scientific laws to apply." Software engineers may well be succeeding before computer science grows out of its bastardized mathematics phase and also becomes a science. Software engineering may succeed without the full blessing of all academic computer scientists or institutionalized engineers. But the job it is trying to do is very tough and it may well not succeed. Only time and experience will tell, just as in science. Now back to parallelizing databases, --Sid -- Sid Kitchel...............WARNING: allergic to smileys and hearts.... Computer Science Dept. kitchel@cs.indiana.edu Indiana University kitchel@iubacs.BITNET Bloomington, Indiana 47405-4101........................(812)855-9226