3 ms·

Free speech. First Amendment covers source code and similar expressions. Regulating free speech is virtually impossible. That is where the whole project stops.

tarmstrong 10y ago
There are regulations that affect the work of software engineers. PCI DSS is one that I am familiar with. Perhaps unfortunately, if your software interacts with the real world (like payments infrastructure), you have to heed regulation. This tends not to affect people who are casually writing software or working on many open source projects, but it does impact large companies like Google. (I like to think of this as pretty similar to the Haskell IO monad. At some point you have to break out of your cozy side-effect free code and actually do something. At that point you have to deal with the messy real world.)
- EvanAnderson 10y ago
  PCI DSS isn't regulation. It's a standard promulgated by a private LLC (the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council). HIPAA would be a much better example of regulation that is material w/ respect to software development.
  - tarmstrong 10y ago
    Great point. Thanks!
- codygman 10y ago
  > (I like to think of this as pretty similar to the Haskell IO monad. At some point you have to break out of your cozy side-effect free code and actually do something. At that point you have to deal with the messy real world.) And Haskell is excellent for dealing with the aforementioned messy real world. Better than any of the previous languages (for 1000+ loc) I've worked with.
NegativeK 10y ago
That's already not the case. Lawyers can get in shit for giving bad advice, and architects have to sign off on blueprints for things that matter. That doesn't mean that lawyers can't make jokes and architects can't draft blueprints for buildings that smoosh every occupant; it means their professional statements have legal weight.

tarmstrong 10y ago

There are regulations that affect the work of software engineers. PCI DSS is one that I am familiar with. Perhaps unfortunately, if your software interacts with the real world (like payments infrastructure), you have to heed regulation. This tends not to affect people who are casually writing software or working on many open source projects, but it does impact large companies like Google. (I like to think of this as pretty similar to the Haskell IO monad. At some point you have to break out of your cozy side-effect free code and actually do something. At that point you have to deal with the messy real world.)

EvanAnderson 10y ago
PCI DSS isn't regulation. It's a standard promulgated by a private LLC (the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council). HIPAA would be a much better example of regulation that is material w/ respect to software development.
- tarmstrong 10y ago
  Great point. Thanks!
codygman 10y ago
> (I like to think of this as pretty similar to the Haskell IO monad. At some point you have to break out of your cozy side-effect free code and actually do something. At that point you have to deal with the messy real world.) And Haskell is excellent for dealing with the aforementioned messy real world. Better than any of the previous languages (for 1000+ loc) I've worked with.

NegativeK 10y ago

That's already not the case. Lawyers can get in shit for giving bad advice, and architects have to sign off on blueprints for things that matter. That doesn't mean that lawyers can't make jokes and architects can't draft blueprints for buildings that smoosh every occupant; it means their professional statements have legal weight.