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From: chrisp@regenmeister.EBay.Sun.COM (Chris Prael)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Art vs. Engineering
Message-ID: <1336@grapevine.EBay.Sun.COM>
Date: 15 May 91 17:03:16 GMT
References: <1991May13.181826.18832@hellgate.utah.edu>
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From article <1991May13.181826.18832@hellgate.utah.edu>, by b-davis%cai.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Brad Davis):
> Software creation is a craft, as in the great crafts of the ancient
> world.

This is as true (and as inaccurate) of building software is it is of
building automobiles, disk drives, or high rise buildings.

> Even the most talented "artist" needs to study, refine, and
> hone his/her work and the most talented begining "artist" is still a
> poor software writer.  

Very true and very said!

> On the other side, there are no hard and fast,
> tried and true rules that will create great software as there is in
> the sciences and engineering to create new entities.

Where did you get the idea that " hard and fast, tried and true rules"
can produce great engineering?  Wake up and look around you.  "Hard and
fast, tried and true" produced the same pedestian garbage in structural
engineering, mechanical engineering, and electronic engineering as it
does in programming.

Too many people mistakenly believe that designing software is somehow
magically different from other forms of engineering.

Chris Prael