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posted by cmn32480 on Saturday November 07 2015, @11:02AM   Printer-friendly
from the but-it-makes-me-look-cool dept.

The Atlantic is running an article on the friction between the computing world and Professional Engineer societies. This discussion has been going on for a long time, and is meaningful to me personally - I quit a 10-year career as server administrator with 'engineer' in my job title when I graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree, and have since earned my Professional Engineer license. In a world where most software comes with a disclaimer of liability due to defects, where would an ethical, civic-minded programmer even practice Professional Engineering? Angry Birds probably doesn't have any responsibility to the public safety, so there's little need there; on the other hand, Google's self-driving car program is a good candidate.

I'd love to welcome the programming profession into the circle of licensed Engineers, provided that the industry manages to agree on standards of quality and accountability. I don't see the methods (such as Agile) used by programmers as a significant obstacle, either; the programming motto of "move fast and break things" (which the article wrongly decries) is echoed in the motto "fail early, fail often" that is held by many Mech Eng R&D shops. I just fear that the halting problem will be solved before any such standards become widely accepted and implemented in the industry.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by srobert on Saturday November 07 2015, @02:27PM

    by srobert (4803) on Saturday November 07 2015, @02:27PM (#259961)

    ... than just almost anybody else on this forum. I served an apprenticeship in the International Union of Operating Engineers where I was a stationary engineer, i.e. a jack of all trades boiler operator, plumber, electrician, HVAC technician, welder, etc. I had certifications for most of this. After a four year apprenticeship, I served about 12 years as a journeyman. While I was a journeyman stationary engineer, I returned to college and got a BS in mechanical engineering. Subsequently, I worked as a civil engineer and have held a PE in Civil Engineering. I'm not a programmer so I have no idea how appropriate it is for programmers to call themselves engineers. Neither do you.

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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 07 2015, @07:04PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 07 2015, @07:04PM (#260059)

    What is your point. Personal gloating, an admission of ignorance, then accusing other people of ignorance. Are you sure you got your degree from an accredited institution? I'd expect any worthwhile school to teach analysis and applying critical thinking to rhetoric, yet your post has neither.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 07 2015, @08:28PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 07 2015, @08:28PM (#260099)

    Well, I'm a Ph.-fucking-D. physicist, and you "engineers" are a bunch of poser calculator monkeys.

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 07 2015, @08:32PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 07 2015, @08:32PM (#260103)

    >Neither do you.

    Ah... no, I do.

    I was a professional engineer who switched to software development. I know what real engineering is and I know what kind of crap is produced by most programmers. There is no comparison, no matter what most programmers seem to think.

    Software development is not engineering in today's world. Software development, by analogy, is about where civil engineering was when they built the pyramids. It was amazing what they could do with brute force, but it pales compared to what real engineers can do today.