"Tim Wescott" wrote in message
...
Bob Engelhardt wrote:
Pete C. wrote:
Actually writing good software *is* engineering, ...

I was a software "engineer" for 25 years before retiring in '92. Maybe
things have changed since then (although I doubt it), but in my career I
never did myself, or saw, or heard about, or read about someone using
math to analyze the behavior of software. That is the essence of
"engineering": the use of math models, based on science, to analyze &
predict the behavior of a design. Be it electrical, mechanical, civil,
chemical, metallurgical, whatever real engineering. All based on
science. Software is NOT included.

Don't get me started on "computer science".

Bob

I don't know what sort of software development you were involved in, but I
do see folks applying math to analyze software all the time -- to insure
performance, to insure that it'll do what it's supposed to do, to make
sure it'll fit into the available space on an embedded processor, all of
that.

But then, I've seen all of the above discipline ignored, too. Many folks
who call themselves "software engineers" are just programmers.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" was written for you.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html

Very true except for Windows programming. I spent a lot of my career doing
embedded software for disk drives, disk controllers and biomed. We used
lots of math to analyze performance and benchmarks. Doing some windows
stuff for the laptops to control the devices, never was analyzed, and most
did not. Lots written in Visual Basic. Bloat city. Fact is the disk drive
patent I have, uses sine**2 + Cos**2 = 1 At least some math there.