[prog] State of software engineering profession

[Jimen Ching]

On Sun, 13 Apr 2003, Mary wrote:
>I think part of the problem is that although you've talked about the
>poor standards and general blinkered view of the software industry, and
>implied that you in particular do not share these views and therefore
>rise far above the common or garden variety software engineer, that you
>have not sufficiently proven your status.

I'm not sure what you mean.  Can you elaborate?  Do you mean I should give
my qualifications?

>The common phrase in free software is "show us the code". Saying that
>you want this project to do X, Y and Z is interesting, but doesn't cause
>X, Y and Z to happen, whereas coding does.
>
>In this case, I'd be willing to replace it with "show us the plan".

This is exactly the 'other problems' that I was alluding to in my other
responses.  And, even though you pointed out _free software_, the people
who work on these free software work for major companies.  So we're not
talking about high schoolers or university undergrads.  We're talking
about season'ed professionals.

To avoid any confusion.  Let me elaborate what I mean.  Because of this
'show us the code' mentality, the programmer is implying that it is ok to
skip the design phase.  As a result of this lack of planning, defects are
often introduced.  But as long as the 'feature' is added, that's ok.  This
is the 'state of our profession' that I was talking about.

I should have been more clear about these points.  I appologize for not
being as expressive as I should be.

--jc
-- 
Jimen Ching (WH6BRR)      jching at flex.com     wh6brr at uhm.ampr.org