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The fact that it's not called The Art of Software Engineering is interesting. If computer programmer was a good enough title for Knuth and Thompson then it's go
by 2OEH8eoCRo0 3y ago
The fact that it's not called The Art of Software Engineering is interesting. If computer programmer was a good enough title for Knuth and Thompson then it's good enough for me.
- padjo 3y agoI think software engineering encompasses a lot more than implementing algorithms. It’s a very different practice to computer science, which is probably what Knuth would call himself these days.
- svat 3y agoI like the (overlapping) definition of “software engineering” from Titus Winters (https://abseil.io/resources/swe-book https://abseil.io/resources/swe-book) and Russ Cox (https://research.swtch.com/vgo-eng https://research.swtch.com/vgo-eng) respectively, that it is “programming integrated over time” and that “Software engineering is what happens to programming when you add time and other programmers”. In that sense, TAOCP is at something like the extreme of computer programming that is not software engineering: it's about programs for specific problems (don't need to be continuously changed with time), and by a programmer who works alone, does not involve other programmers or reuse their code/libraries.