Software systems are orders of magnitude more complex than the most complex physical or electrical systems. Anyone who doesn't think it's engineering has never written programs for physical systems before. This is interesting because complexity is shifting into software that controls physical systems and out of the physical systems themselves.
Do you want government regulation of the software profession though?
yes, what you have to ask is if it is possible to "certify" a SW system, because that is the key role of the whole "engineer" mess.
basically, a bridge build according to regulation is deemed safe
can you do that on systems engineering ? no, not unless you basically "freeze" the tech landscape and certify it
The key point I am trying to say: You need to look beyond the simple statement, to the consequences
Have a look at what this guy is up to.
https://research.unsw.edu.au/people/scientia-professor-gernot-heiser
I have gray hair and around 30 years ago transputers where the thing, to be used for "formal programming"
guarantee to be provable true
obviously there is a catch, the whole issue is moved to the "specification" and that becomes another language
it is turtles all the way down
(post is archived)