Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!husc6!ukma!psuvm.bitnet!uh2 From: UH2@PSUVM.BITNET (Lee Sailer) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: Is it Art or is it Engineering Message-ID: <33673UH2@PSUVM> Date: 15 Feb 88 14:59:08 GMT References: <6879@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <1553@ogcvax.UUCP> Organization: Penn Sate Erie--School of Business Lines: 23 In article <1553@ogcvax.UUCP>, pase@ogcvax.UUCP (Douglas M. Pase) says: > >In article decot@hpisod2.HP.COM (Dave Decot) writes: >>I agree that the distinguishing characteristic between what this >>"industry" does and engineering is the general unexpectation that what >>is produced will perform exactly as specified. > ^^ ^^^^^^^^^ > >There's the rub. If we had a notation sufficiently precise to completely >specify what our programs were supposed to do, we would use this specification >language as a programming language, write a compiler, and then they would >perform exactly as specified. Denotational semantics has been pushed in that Yes, but... A specification language would specify exactly *what* was to be done, but not necessarily *how*. E.g., "...ans sort the file in less than 5 seconds..." is a specification, but not a compilable program. Of course, languages like Prolog are moving that way... lee