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From: Eachus@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.lang.ada
Subject: Professionalism
Message-ID: <851208185443.106615@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA>
Date: Sun, 8-Dec-85 13:54:00 EST
Article-I.D.: MIT-MULT.851208185443.106615
Posted: Sun Dec  8 13:54:00 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 13-Dec-85 08:02:59 EST
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
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    Now  that  the problems caused by moving Info-Ada have been fixed, I
would  like to say some things in defense of Ed's efforts.  The need for
professional software engineers is here.  There are a lot of areas where
poor  software  could  be much more harmful than the recent problem with
this  mailing  list.   Responsible  people are going to insist that this
work  be done, and supervised, by professionals.  There are four ways to
do this:

          1. Use professionals from other engineering fields.
          2. Impose existing standards on Software Engineers.
          3. Develop new professional standards for Software Engineering.
          4. Ignore the problem and hope it goes away.

    For   software  engineers  using  Ada  solutions  one  and  two  are
unacceptable,  and  in  many areas (flight software, banking, SDI, etc.)
the  fourth  alternative  is too horrible to contemplate.  This leaves a
choice  between developing standards ourselves, and having others impose
them.  I hope that the standards that do evolve are similar to those for
other  professional  engineers,  or those for CPA's and actuaries, where
only  those  who  want  or  need  to  be recognized as professionals are
required to comply with the standards and ethics of the profession.

                                        Robert I. Eachus