Re: Software Engineering: Art or Science?

On Thu, 27 Nov 2003 22:23:28 +0000 (UTC), [EMAIL PROTECTED]
("Paul E. Bennett") wrote:

>In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>           [EMAIL PROTECTED] "John Larkin" writes:
>
>> Except for hard DSP applications, or realtime closed-loop control,
>> software design seldom has a mathematical (or even theoretical) basis,
>> and no predictive theory is used in software system design. People
>> mostly just write code based on experience, and then try it out. This
>> certainly isn't science, and barely qualifies as engineering.
>
>I don't know where you have experienced software development but it
>certainly is not that way with me. I do have a theory, ahead of writing 
>code, of what I want achieved by the code, how it will sit on the
>hardware and also a risk and reliability assessment down to the module 
>level. I often write the definitive description of what is required
>of many of the sub-routines (certainly the upper abstraction layers
>and the hardware interface layers). From this attention to detail I
>can certify that the code does exactly as required as specified by
>that definitive description (glossary text).
> 
>> It would only be art if the programs were beautiful, but they're
>> usually ugly.
>
>If the code starts looking ugly you have taken a wrong direction
>somewhere and should go back and re-think. Robust code is most often
>simply elegant and beautiful to behold. I think that applies in most
>languages and is not just a Forth thing.

If you're like me & are a druid, tone-deaf and totally colour
un-coordinated, then I'd start to rely on software metric tools such
as McCabe's Cyclomatic Complexity index. Also it's sometimes difficult
(and possibly un-diplomatic) to criticize a team member's "beautiful"
code --- it's more palatable to let a utility be the "art" critic.
Best applied to team members who have "acceptance" issues and a large
collection of handguns & "home protection" appliances ;-)

Ken.

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