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I think the need for, or at least the level of reliance on, a site like Stack Overflow is an example of how utterly messed up the "profession" is compared to ot

I think the need for, or at least the level of reliance on, a site like Stack Overflow is an example of how utterly messed up the "profession" is compared to other engineering and non-engineering professions.

badosu 8y ago
That's not a fair comparison, the level of diversity in ways to solve or diagnose a problem are much bigger in the software engineering world. Where in a typical engineering profession you would have a somewhat defined checklist on how to diagnose an issue and a proven method to fix it, in software engineering you have a million possibilities: "- Did you check x? - Was this nth specific step for this specific framework followed? etc.." It's messy because the problem space can't be as easily enumerated.
zrobotics 8y ago
I don't know, software is far more dynamic than many other engineering fields. Even a first edition of The Art of Electronics is chick full of useful information, the only truly dated stuff is anything involving microcontrollers (so, software). Even the sections on digital logic ICs are still useful, they still see some use. Software has always had the problem of information being outdated before the books even reach retailers. However, this is one of my big frustrations with SO. There are so, so many c++ questions with accepted answers that are now 'wrong' due to changes in the language. That, and the fanatical insistence to close questions that are opinion based closes off a lot of questions more experienced programmers will have.
rcxdude 8y ago
I think other engineering professions could be substantially improved by a greater participation of their members in such sites. The amount of public communication and advice availible for profession electronics development, for example, is far lower than that for software (There's a glut of hobby-level stuff, but beyond the basics it gets much worse).

badosu 8y ago

That's not a fair comparison, the level of diversity in ways to solve or diagnose a problem are much bigger in the software engineering world. Where in a typical engineering profession you would have a somewhat defined checklist on how to diagnose an issue and a proven method to fix it, in software engineering you have a million possibilities: "- Did you check x? - Was this nth specific step for this specific framework followed? etc.." It's messy because the problem space can't be as easily enumerated.

zrobotics 8y ago

I don't know, software is far more dynamic than many other engineering fields. Even a first edition of The Art of Electronics is chick full of useful information, the only truly dated stuff is anything involving microcontrollers (so, software). Even the sections on digital logic ICs are still useful, they still see some use. Software has always had the problem of information being outdated before the books even reach retailers. However, this is one of my big frustrations with SO. There are so, so many c++ questions with accepted answers that are now 'wrong' due to changes in the language. That, and the fanatical insistence to close questions that are opinion based closes off a lot of questions more experienced programmers will have.

rcxdude 8y ago

I think other engineering professions could be substantially improved by a greater participation of their members in such sites. The amount of public communication and advice availible for profession electronics development, for example, is far lower than that for software (There's a glut of hobby-level stuff, but beyond the basics it gets much worse).