this post was submitted on 24 May 2024
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[–] P1d40n3@hexbear.net 46 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Software engineering is rapidly becoming a net negative for us all.

[–] aaaaaaadjsf@hexbear.net 37 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

That's because most "software engineers" aren't actually engineers. They're more systems designers and analysts with a bit of programming knowledge and a little bit of a computer science background. Being a real engineer is very different.

[–] ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net 29 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Computer science isn't science and software engineers aren't engineers.

[–] aqwxcvbnji@hexbear.net 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

Computer science isn't science

Why not?

[–] facow@hexbear.net 12 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Because for the most part it's approached completely unscientifically - especially in the corporate setting.

What code is "cleaner and more maintainable?" All ~vibes~.

How should we write tests to ensure they're robust and covering all expected functionality? Who cares just get the tool to 90% coverage and ship it.

A carpenter isn't a wood scientist

[–] macerated_baby_presidents@hexbear.net 12 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

That's not "computer science", you're talking about programming or software engineering, which are workers building what computer scientists have figured out. There are very few computer scientists. They are basically specialized mathematicians. Think Dijkstra. Google has most of them chained up in a basement somewhere writing sharding algorithms or something. It's confusing because many programmers get CS undergrad degrees, but they are starting to make "software engineering" degrees.

It's true that CS doesn't use the scientific method, but neither do library science, "scientific socialism", etc. Popper isn't the be-all end-all.

[–] facow@hexbear.net 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Fair enough I had been considering deleting/rewriting my comment for a similar reason. Point still stands if you replace CS for SWE

[–] macerated_baby_presidents@hexbear.net 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

yeah SWE is not science, we're not discovering anything we're just building

[–] Saeculum@hexbear.net 7 points 5 months ago

They don't use the scientific method, and they generally don't publish research or collect data.

[–] AdmiralDoohickey@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 5 months ago

It's math. You don't really use the scientific method

[–] Miaou@jlai.lu 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Pretty sure you could word things similarly for every field that's around. I've yet to find a proper explanation for "software development is not engineering"

[–] CyberSyndicalist@hexbear.net 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

engineering is when you are tangentially related to someone wearing a hard hat

[–] Miaou@jlai.lu 2 points 5 months ago

Don't forget the sweaty muscular men!

[–] macerated_baby_presidents@hexbear.net 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I think this is not true. When interviewed, people who have crossed over from ChemE/MechE/etc say it's engineering. We just iterate a lot faster because compiling is cheap and most software failures are cheap.

I think we rely too much on stereotypical ideas of what "real engineers" are doing, which can't be defined and generally don't stand up to scrutiny. For instance, is designing a processor in VHDL computer engineering or merely programming?

[–] BananaOnionJuice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 5 months ago

In this case I'm pretty sure it's some C level clown that pushed this through even if everyone told them "it's not ready" or "you need a larger model for this to work".

The people on the floor rarely get heard, they only get the blame.

[–] 2Password2Remember@hexbear.net 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

monke-return

Death to America