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It's not like software engineering doesn't have unsolved problems either, like why is it still so hard to produce bug free software, why programmer productivity

by robryan 16y ago

It's not like software engineering doesn't have unsolved problems either, like why is it still so hard to produce bug free software, why programmer productivity has only gone up a small amount despite 30 years of language advances and why most software still has to be mostly custom. The dream from the earlier days of software engineering where we were eventually meant to have components that could easily be mixed and matched to create whatever we want hasn't eventuated.

rbranson 16y ago
I don't think we'll ever get around having to build software with code and highly trained developers. The world is still very much custom engineered, from architecture to civil engineering, electrical to mechanical engineering, even mass produced items have relatively few interchangeable parts.
- prosa 16y ago
  I agree. However, it is worth examining places like Dubai -- the tallest building in the world, and indeed practically an entire new city, was built by unskilled laborers working for dollars a day. That's a compelling case for commoditization of talent, but in the end I think it's just a heuristic improvement. It gets you pretty far, but at the end of the day you still have huge teams of PhDs and M.Archs doing the actual engineering. (If that was commoditized it would be a scary world indeed!)
  - rbanffy 16y ago
    > an entire new city, was built by unskilled laborers working for dollars a day. Let's see if it's still standing a couple decades from now.
    - werrett 16y ago
      >> an entire new city, was built by unskilled laborers working for dollars a day. > Let's see if it's still standing a couple decades from now. I didn't realise that it was solely teams of skilled engineers and artisans doing the riveting on Empire State back in 1930.
      - rbanffy 16y ago
        You do, of course, understand how over-engineered is the Empire State by today's standards. I seriously doubt 30's margins are still being applied.

by robryan 16y ago

rbranson 16y ago

I don't think we'll ever get around having to build software with code and highly trained developers. The world is still very much custom engineered, from architecture to civil engineering, electrical to mechanical engineering, even mass produced items have relatively few interchangeable parts.

prosa 16y ago
I agree. However, it is worth examining places like Dubai -- the tallest building in the world, and indeed practically an entire new city, was built by unskilled laborers working for dollars a day. That's a compelling case for commoditization of talent, but in the end I think it's just a heuristic improvement. It gets you pretty far, but at the end of the day you still have huge teams of PhDs and M.Archs doing the actual engineering. (If that was commoditized it would be a scary world indeed!)
- rbanffy 16y ago
  > an entire new city, was built by unskilled laborers working for dollars a day. Let's see if it's still standing a couple decades from now.
  - werrett 16y ago
    >> an entire new city, was built by unskilled laborers working for dollars a day. > Let's see if it's still standing a couple decades from now. I didn't realise that it was solely teams of skilled engineers and artisans doing the riveting on Empire State back in 1930.
    - rbanffy 16y ago
      You do, of course, understand how over-engineered is the Empire State by today's standards. I seriously doubt 30's margins are still being applied.