From: Steve Merrick Date: 2002-05-13T19:39:20+09:00 Subject: Re: OT:is software eng an art? "Dossy" wrote in message news:20020512041651.GD25936@panoptic.com... > I'd rather not have some hotshot get "creative" > with the way they build the monitoring equipment > that they use in a hospital operating theater. I've seen this comment, in this discussion, one too many times - it's time to respond. ;-) The kind of creativity we are talking about is entirely suited to a safety-critical environment. We're not talking whimsy and chintz here - this is software! Yes, there is art, beauty and creativity in software, but if it's unsuitable to the task in hand, then it's wrong and the resulting software will not form an acceptable solution to the original design problem. [Of course, the same would apply to an inappropriate 'scientific' or 'engineering' feature of the software. Bad design is bad design.] Software design begins with a problem for which there is currently no acceptable solution available. The designer is required to *create* such a solution; creativity is an intrinsic part of design. Dossy - I'm just using your comment as an opening for what I have to say. [I.e. this isn't a direct attack on what you wrote.] I hope that's OK with you? ;-) ---- There are two main types of software engineer. There are those who believe their field is objectively definable, based on scientific and engineering principles and practices. And there are those who recognise a strong creative and artistic component in what they do. The most important observation of all - in the context of this discussion about software as an art or a science - is that both of these camps produce good, working, accurate, reliable and maintainable software. This being the case, in impartial view would tend towards the conclusion that either view is acceptable, and that software design can be treated as science/engineering, or as an art/craft, without compromising the end product. [And yet my personal tastes lead me to the view that the scientists/engineers are mistaken, and their conceptions incomplete.... The clear, *and obviously correct*, conclusion isn't always easy to accept, is it? :-)] -- Steve Merrick "Who cares, wins"