Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wasatch!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcvax!unido!ecrcvax!periklis
From: periklis@ecrcvax.UUCP (Periklis Tsahageas)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: software engineers
Summary: Software engineers are NOT just programmers
Keywords: software engineering, data abstraction, debugging, programming
Message-ID: <716@ecrcvax.UUCP>
Date: 2 May 89 10:17:21 GMT
References: <854@odyssey.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: periklis@ecrcvax.UUCP (Periklis Tsahageas)
Organization: European Computer-Industry Research Centre, Munich 81,West Germany
Lines: 44

Flame on !

In article <854@odyssey.ATT.COM> gls@odyssey.ATT.COM (g.l.sicherman) writes:
>> Suppose it is 5 years in the future - 1995 [sic].  You have been
>> promoted.  You are recruiting someone to join your team of "Soft-
>> ware Engineers." The applicants all have a B.S. in "Software Engi-
>> neering." --What skills and knowledge do they all have? ... [Long
>> list of possibilities]
>
>Real programmers spend 90% of their time debugging.  Computer science
Real software engineers spend 100% of their time trying to reduce the time
programmers spend on debugging.

>curricula ignore debugging, perhaps because it can never be reduced
>to a theory.  But debugging skills are what I would look for *first.*
>(By the way, I am using "software engineer" as synonymous with "programmer."
Great mistake, sounds like a voice from the past.

>Separating design from implementation is usually a mistake; ask the DoD.)
Seperating design from implementation is one of the greatest advances in the
field of software engineering (borrowed/stolen from other engineering
disciplines).  Have you heard of something called data abstraction ? ADT's ?

>
>Other skills I would look for:
>
> list of skills deleted
>
I, absolutely, agree.  They are all necessary for a programmer.

>Col. G. L. Sicherman
>gls@odyssey.att.COM


I think software engineering degrees are an attempt by the academia, supported
by the software engineering industry, to evolve the craft of current software
manufacture into an enginneering discipline.  Of course, this is a third year
student of Software Engineering (M.Eng.) at Imperial College, London, speaking.

-- 
Periklis Andreas Tsahageas           European Computer-Industry Research Centre
Arabellastrasse 17, D-8000 Muenchen 81, West Germany       +49 (89) 92 69 91 09
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