Re: Software "Engineers"

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Article #3522

#3522

From: Rahul Dhesi
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1991 06:39

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In <3844@ssc-bee.ssc-vax.UUCP> dmg@ssc-vax.uucp (David M Geary) writes:

>Computer science is not, really.  Where is the "science" in computer science?
>There is no one correct way to write, for instance, a database.

Computer science is essentially the study of algorithms.  This is why
it is a science.

Algorithms can be implemented in many ways, and each of them is either
correct.

The science in computer science is mostly about correctness.  The
engineering in software engineering is mostly about efficiency.

So:

There may be more than one correct way to write a database system, but
each of them is either correct or incorrect.  The correct ways
will all take forever to implement.

The computer scientist can tell you (or die trying) whether the system
is correct or not.  The software engineer can tell you (or die trying)
how close to correct it can be and still be implemented in your
lifetime.
--
Rahul Dhesi <dhesi@cirrus.COM>
UUCP:  oliveb!cirrusl!dhesi

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From: dhesi%cirrusl@oliveb.ATC.olivetti.com (Rahul Dhesi)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc,comp.object
Subject: Re: Software "Engineers"
Message-ID: <3056@cirrusl.UUCP>
Date: 16 Apr 91 06:39:58 GMT
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