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.
(Score: 2) by gnuman on Sunday November 08 2015, @01:30AM
That's "Computer Science". There are materials sciences too in physics, and those have nothing to do with engineering. Engineers use the tools that scientists create to build things - that's probably the best definition.
In some cases the programmer might know if multiplication runs on a certain CPU in O(1) or O(n)
I have a hunch that you are no software engineer!!
I don't see how someone performing a task clearly matching the dictionary-definition of "engineering" can categorically not be allowed carry the job title "Engineer"
In many jurisdictions, "engineer" is a title defined in law, not in dictionary. Kind of similar to Doctor.