Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!gatech!mcnc!xanth!kent
From: kent@xanth.cs.odu.edu (Kent Paul Dolan)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Is it Art or is it Engineering
Message-ID: <3952@xanth.cs.odu.edu>
Date: 7 Feb 88 02:51:53 GMT
References: <6879@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: kent@xanth.UUCP (Kent Paul Dolan)
Organization: Old Dominion University, Norfolk Va.
Lines: 30
Keywords: Art Engineering Tolerances

In article <6879@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> bks@ALFA.berkeley.edu (Brad Sherman) writes:
>
>
>
>There seems to be a perception among programmers that
>current software development is not really "engineering."
>
>What do "real" engineers do that we do not?

Real engineers build bridges that work when delivered.

>Is there anything in programming that is analogous to
>the term "tolerance" in engineering?

If by tolerance you mean the kind you measure with micrometers, sure.
That is what all those convergance criteria are in numerical analysis.

If you mean the twelvefold over strength needed wooden beams in some old
houses, then again yes.  We do it when each routine checks its inputs,
even when they are created within another subroutine of the same
program, when we check the return code on the "close()" file command
in C, which is folk rumored never to fail, but has actually been known
to do so.  We call it paranoia!  ;-)

>
>	Brad Sherman - (You See Bee)
>
>I don't know what I like, but I know art when I see it.


Kent, the man from xanth.