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From: jnedzel@netcom.com (Jared Nedzel)
Subject: Re: Software Engineering Doesn't Exist [was: C Hackers]
Message-ID: <jnedzelDC2os8.FsM@netcom.com>
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References: <3ulkoh$mui@handy.gr.com> <denatale-2107950011190001@grail519.nando.net> <3uoc7p$4ka@handy.gr.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Jul 1995 15:38:32 GMT
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In article <3uoc7p$4ka@handy.gr.com> Rob Broadhead <robb@gr.com> writes:
>>Any bridge designer who cares not what his bridges are to be constructed
>>of is not going to design very successful bridges. If he designs it
>>assuming that steel will be used and tin is substituted, the bridge will
>>likely fall.
>>
>My point was not that an engineer doesn't need to know what materials are 
>available, but the engineer should not design something and then mandate 
                                                             ^^^^^^^^^^^^
>that certain tools or materials be used.  If there are constraints like 
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>time, money, resources, then the engineer should build that into the 
>design.  The design should not dictate the implementation.
>
>---Rob
>

I think we're getting a bit far from software here, but as a civil
engineer I have to comment on this.  A civil engineer cannot and
will not design a material-independent bridge.  The properties of and
construction techniques for concrete are different enough from
those for steel that the same design cannot apply for both materials.
A structural design for a bridge includes member sizes, and since
the properties of the materials are so different that even if the
same style of design could be built with both materials, the member
sizes and connection details would be entirely different.

Furthermore, some design styles essentially preclude using 
certain materials.  (For example, consider how many truss bridges
have been built out of concrete -- none that I know of.  You can't
build an arch dam out of earth, etc. )

In civil engineering, be it bridge design, building design, dam
design, etc., the implementation details *must* be considered
very early in the design process.

Now I'm not advocating that we do the same in software engineering.
I think at this point the analogy is essentially broken.

-- 
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Jared Nedzel  					jnedzel@netcom.com

Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean there isn't someone out to get me
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