What's your definition of software engineering?

[shoneill]

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[mikeporter]

No, No, No... That's the meaning of Life, The Universe and Everything... 

Mike...

[mikeporter]

A couple years ago they published a collection of Parnas' papers called modestly: "Software Fundamentals". As I travel around the country working there are very few books I schlep around with me - this is one of them. His paper on Modular Decomposition (from 1972!) is a well you can go back to again, again and again...

Mike...

Message Edited by mikeporter on 06-28-2007 10:57 AM

[Jim_Kring]

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@mikeporter wrote:
A couple years ago they published a collection of Parnas' papers called modestly: "Software Fundamentals". As I travel around the country working there are very few books I schlep around with me - this is one of them. His paper on Modular Decomposition (from 1972!) is a well you can go back to again, again and again...

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Mike,

Thanks for the book recommendation -- I've just ordered a copy.  I'm going on a week-long trip in a couple weeks and I have been thinking hard about what reading materials to keep me company.

-Jim

[Jim_Kring]

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@JoeLabView wrote:

somehow... something seems to be missing wrt "design"..  there has to be an element of design in there.. 

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Joe,

I agree -- there should be a mention of design.

Thanks,

-Jim

[Jim_Kring]

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@gchristi1 wrote:

I clicked on mikeporter's link and like the David Parnas quote:

"Software Engineering - an unconsummated marriage"

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gchristi1,

When I read the David Parnas bio, that was the thing that really struck a chord with me, as well 🙂  As much as we try to apply engineering rigor to our software development, we can and should always strive to do better.

Thanks,

-Jim

Message Edited by Jim Kring on 06-28-2007 10:51 AM

[mikeporter]

One thing I will always remember is many years ago sitting reading a paper he wrote in (I think) 1968 and trying to figure out how it would apply to LV development in 1987. At one point he made the statement to the effect of:

"...imagine that your subroutines all have front panels with knobs and switches..."

I remember thinking: "Hot damn! My subroutines do have front panels - with knobs and switches!"  I really need to look up that reference. It would make a great sig.

Mike...

[Jim_Kring]

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@mikeporter wrote:
One thing I will always remember is many years ago sitting reading a paper he wrote in (I think) 1968 and trying to figure out how it would apply to LV development in 1987. At one point he made the statement to the effect of:

"...imagine that your subroutines all have front panels with knobs and switches..."

I remember thinking: "Hot damn! My subroutines do have front panels - with knobs and switches!"  I really need to look up that reference. It would make a great sig.

Mike...

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Wow!  That's cool.  I wonder if that would serve as prior art to invalidate any patents on graphical/visual programming

[Jim_Kring]

I just read this and figured I'd throw it into the mix...

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Three Things I Learned About Software in College

2.) Software engineering is the art of amassing collected anecdotes and calling them Best Practices when in truth they have more in common with fads than anything else.

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🙂