🚀 go-pugleaf

Recent postings to the uk.bcs.misc newsgroup have asked whether it is reasonable
to regard computer science as an engineering discipline and whether computer
scientists can and should think of themselves as engineers.

I believe that it is becoming an engineering discipline, although the
foundations have not been fully established yet. A similar position is taken,
for example, in the ACM SIGSOFT '93 call for papers which was posted to the
net recently.

When I joined my present employer, it was with the title Software Systems Engineer.
Information Systems Engineer is more general, but is still appropriate to me.
However, I recognise that it does not apply equally to everybody. This is a
healthy sign, as it shows the breadth and diversity of the profession.

A difficulty with any kind of label, whether it describes a person or an
institution, is that it becomes hard to change if one wishes to alter the image
which it conveys. Some years ago, I heard a speaker from the Association for
Computing Machinery make a similar point when asked if the ACM wanted to change
its name.

Returning to the first question, this quotation from Prof Hoare suggests that
there are similarities with established engineering disciplines, while
highlighting what is new and different about computer science:

"In 1828, on the occasion of the grant of Royal Charter to the Institution
of Civil Engineers, Thomas Tredgold defined civil engineering as `the art of
directing the great sources of power in Nature for the use and convenience
of man'. Many branches of engineering have been established since that date.
They have all been concerned with the capture, storage and transformation of
energy, or with the processing, shaping and assembly of materials. Computer
programmers work with neither energy nor materials, but with a more intangible
concept. We are concerned with the capture, storage, and processing of
information. When the nature of our activities is more widely understood, both
within our profession and outside, then we shall be deservedly recognised and
respected as a branch of engineering. And I believe that in our branch of
engineering, above all others, the academic ideals of rigour and elegance
will pay the highest dividends in practical terms of reducing costs, increasing
performance, and in directing the great sources of computational power on the
surface of a silicon chip to the use and convenience of man."

C A R Hoare, "Programming is an Engineering Profession," Pergamon Infotech
State of the Art Report, Software Engineering: Developments, 11(3), pp. 77-84, 1983.


Merry Christmas and best wishes for '93.

Pete.