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From: new@ee.udel.edu (Darren New)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Software "Engineers"
Message-ID: <52183@nigel.ee.udel.edu>
Date: 29 Apr 91 22:48:56 GMT
References: <3844@ssc-bee.ssc-vax.UUCP> <3379@charon.cwi.nl> <1991Apr25.234953.20537@dbase.A-T.COM>
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In article <1991Apr25.234953.20537@dbase.A-T.COM> tomr@dbase.UUCP (Tom Rombouts) writes:
>As I recall, there
>had been several legal decisions stating that as of this point in time
>software developers are _not_ engineers.  This was due in part to any
>sort of standard training or licensing, akin to that found in other
>professions such as law or medicine.  

In other words, there hasn't been enough time for experience to show
what is "reasonable" for a software engineer to do and what is
"unreasonable" well enough that the average Joe Citizen on a jury could
understand.  That is, nobody can come up and say "since Bill Programmer
didn't follow rule 29 of section 18 of volume 7, he was wrong."  This
doesn't say that SE's are not engineers, but rather that the courts
recognised that they can't tell who is and who isn't yet.  Read the
decisions if you need a better clarification.   -- Darren

-- 
--- Darren New --- Grad Student --- CIS --- Univ. of Delaware ---
----- Network Protocols, Graphics, Programming Languages, FDTs -----
+=+ Nails work better than screws, when both are driven with hammers +=+