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From: myjak@home.csc.ti.com (Michael Myjak)
Newsgroups: misc.jobs.misc,comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Practical Experience
Message-ID: <69504@ti-csl.csc.ti.com>
Date: 9 Feb 89 20:26:35 GMT
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>> I wrote:
>>     ...I have often wondered how well pure CS people perform at
>> tasks (like software engineering ?) that require a moderate (to
>> in-depth) level of hardware understanding.

Steve Tarry writes:
>Exposure to the hardware side of computing is but *one* aspect of what
>distinguishes a software engineering education from a computer science
>education.  

In this case I was referring to a systems software engineering; i.e.
one who is applying the skills and techniques of software engineering
to a hardware related application.  Granted Steve, it *is* an
application, but one that all computer scientists should be versed in;
otherwise they would just be programmers. :-)

The original point of discussion which started all this was: "Who is
better qualified to develop software that requires moderate to
in-depth level of hardware knowledge and software engineering, a BSCS
or BSEE?"

The second point I would like to quibble about is that a "software
engineering education" is something that all computer scientists
should have been exposed. IMHO, software engineering is not a separate
discipline, but it may be an area of specialty for a phd dissertation.

Bill Wolfe writes:

>   The field of software engineering is INDEPENDENT of the realm of
>   application; [...] Any application area can 
>   benefit from the utilization of software engineering principles,
>   but software engineering is in no way tied to any particular area 
>   of application.

Exactly where is the "field" of software engineering? is it in Boise? :-)

Many industrial locations call any body which authors programs a
software engineer. While in many instances this may be true, I do not
believe that it is completely accurate.  A BSCS (CIS?) may graduate
without ever having had a single course in software engineering and
yet industry still refers to them as software engineers.

Scott G. writes:
>A software engineer is the typical term for someone with a BSCS. 

see?

Bill then goes on to make an incorrect statement:
>   It DOES cover: [...]
>   Modern Programming Language Features (Ada) ...

This is incorrect because Software Engineering is independent of, and
in no way related to a *particular* language, its features, or its
associated environment. While it is true that some languages lend
themselves to software engineering techniques better than other
languages do, software engineering and ADA are mutually exclusive.

Quoting from _Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach_ by
Roger S. Pressman; McGraw-Hill, 1982.:

	Software engineering "... techniques deal with software as an
	engineered product that requires planning, analysis, design,
	implementation, testing, and maintenance." 

To sum this up, Software Engineers are people who apply software
engineering techniques to their programming tasks.


  -- Always mount a scratch monkey --