SCJP<br/>
"I study politics and war that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy in order to give their children a right to study painting poetry and music."<br />--John Adams
Originally posted by Matt Cao:
Hi Jon,
If you are in the field but begin to wonder about the validity of your field of discipline. You may have to change your career.
SCJP<br/>
"I study politics and war that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy in order to give their children a right to study painting poetry and music."<br />--John Adams
Originally posted by Jon McDonald:
Hi All,
I've been thinking about this topic for a while now and I was wondering what your opinions are. Should software Engineering beconsidered an Engineering Disipline or is it something else?
Also what makes software engineering an Engineering disipline?
I haven't fully thought out my arguments for or against the notion so I would love to here from you guys.
Thanks,
Jon
"I, a universe of atoms, an atom in the universe." - Richard Feynman
The secret of how to be miserable is to constantly expect things are going to happen the way that they are "supposed" to happen.
You can have faith, which carries the understanding that you may be disappointed. Then there's being a willfully-blind idiot, which virtually guarantees it.
Originally posted by Tim Holloway:
"Real" Engineers have been known to get really hot over this issue. As far as some are concerned, a Software Engineer and a Sanitary Engineer fall into the same category. Especially since there are thos of us in the software trade who got our skills on the job instead of sweating the terms at college.
It's been a number of years since I've heard of engineers lobbying to get the title "Software Engineer" banned in certain states, but it was an issue for a while.
Personally, whether I'm working with the properties of matter or of abstract meterials (e.g. algorithms), I use the same basic set of mental skills[1], so I'm fine. In fact most of my job titles have been "Software Engineer".
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[1] I've even been known to use slide rules and plastic pocket protectors
Originally posted by San Tiruvan:
I myself had this very doubt for a long time.
After giving it a little thought I came up with some questions...why can't I spot a non-Engineering degree holder (like majors from economics, elementary education etc) who works on lathe machines or on transformers or in chemical plants and why do I see many of the same group of people sit for a few months with a book on C++, Java etc and then start writing software....thus evolving into a "Software Engineer" with no basic understanding of Engineering principles (Some even don't know that it exists)?
Originally posted by Jon McDonald:
I'm not questioning the validity of the field, only why we use the term "Software Engineer" I read that the term came from a 1967 NATO conference concerning building better software for defense systems.
Originally posted by Mark Herschberg:
Can you give me the reference? Thanks.
--Mark
SCJP<br/>
"I study politics and war that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy in order to give their children a right to study painting poetry and music."<br />--John Adams