Re: Computer Science vs. Software Eng. (was re: Natural Kinds)

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Article #370

#370

From: Charles R. Martin
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 20:58

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In article <1992Nov12.222503.15918@vax5.cit.cornell.edu> horj@vax5.cit.cornell.edu (Eric Scheirer) writes:

   There are, empirically, at least three major ways of detecting bugs:

     1. Use the program until it fails to work.  

     2. Try to construct a lot of test cases during development.

     3. Try to prove the program correct (in the Gries sense) before coding it,
	and fail.

   Certainly, it would be possible to construct an argument that these 
   methods correspond to "science", "engineering", and "math" respectively.

It's an interesting thought, but I'm afraid you're mistaken.  Consider
the analogy with bridge-building that gets bandied about a lot -- an
engineer building a bridge certainly uses mathematical analysis to check
the idealiZed mathematical bridge against the specifications for that
bridge.  Similarly, a software engineer should (and someday will!) use
mathematical proof techniques to check the idealized program expressed
as a program text against the program's specifications.


--
		Charles R. Martin/(Charlie)/martinc@cs.unc.edu
     Dept. of Computer Science/CB #3175 UNC-CH/Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3175
	    3611 University Dr #13M/Durham, NC 27707/(919) 419 1754
     "Oh God, please help me be civil in tongue, pure in thought, and able
      to resist the temptation to laugh uncontrollably.  Amen." -- Rob T

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<1992Nov3.214913.25344@dcs.qmw.ac.uk> <MARTINC.92Nov9095218@grover.cs.unc.edu> <1992Nov12.222503.15918@vax5.cit.cornell.edu>

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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!convex!darwin.sura.net!uvaarpa!concert!borg!news_server!martinc
From: martinc@grover.cs.unc.edu (Charles R. Martin)
Newsgroups: sci.logic
Subject: Re: Computer Science vs. Software Eng. (was re: Natural Kinds)
Message-ID: <MARTINC.92Nov13155844@grover.cs.unc.edu>
Date: 13 Nov 92 20:58:44 GMT
References: <1992Nov3.214913.25344@dcs.qmw.ac.uk> <MARTINC.92Nov9095218@grover.cs.unc.edu>
 <1992Nov12.222503.15918@vax5.cit.cornell.edu>
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In-reply-to: horj@vax5.cit.cornell.edu's message of 13 Nov 92 03:25:03 GMT

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