Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!gatech!udel!rochester!ritcv!mjl
From: mjl@ritcv.UUCP (Mike Lutz)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: It IS Engineering
Keywords: Art Engineering Tolerances
Message-ID: <202@ritcv.UUCP>
Date: 12 Feb 88 01:42:41 GMT
References: <6879@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <4618@teddy.UUCP> <691@unm-la.UUCP> <4741@venera.isi.edu>
Reply-To: mjl@ritcv.UUCP (Michael Lutz)
Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
Lines: 26

In article <4741@venera.isi.edu> raveling@vaxa.isi.edu (Paul Raveling) writes:
>
>	There's a heavy component of art in much software development,
>	sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.  This is especially
>	true for developing software without a well-defined (detailed)
>	functional specification.  Some examples from my own experience...
>

Anyone who has worked with a really good electrical or mechanical engineer
knows that there is every bit as much room for creativity, elegance, and
art in those domains as in software development.  However, it does seem that
one can make a decent living as an E.E. by remembering a bunch of formulas
from Circuits III (or, better yet, the page in the CRC reference books where
the formulas can be found).  The current state of software development is such
that such canned solutions are rare, so an even higher premium must be placed
on native design talent.

Good God! I said something nice about hardware types!

Mike Lutz
Rochester Institute of Technology
rochester!ritcv!mjl
-- 
Mike Lutz	Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester NY
UUCP:		{allegra,seismo}!rochester!ritcv!mjl
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