tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975524006824862804.post1934053496330480169..comments2024-02-10T02:23:08.475-08:00Comments on Paul's Pontifications: Software has CivEng EnvyPaul Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353083601285449293noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975524006824862804.post-41873861329326808172013-01-31T12:07:12.596-08:002013-01-31T12:07:12.596-08:00Thanks Paul. A major piece of CivEng Envy (nice te...Thanks Paul. A major piece of CivEng Envy (nice term) comes from the Enterprise Architecture movement. Specifically, John Zachman brought this thinking in from the aerospace industry, with its strict disciplines for aircraft safety.<br />I had a long debate with him (some years ago) as to whether software engineering is comparable.<br />But more to the point recently: the Boeing Dreamliner is now some 2-3 years late, dramatically over budget, and JAL has just pulled its planes out of service because of engineering problems. (The European Airbus next generation is similarly far behind.)<br />These days, I'd say to Zachman: no, the software engineering industry can't risk being as bad as aerospace.AntCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975524006824862804.post-20677870086199051502013-01-31T11:33:53.006-08:002013-01-31T11:33:53.006-08:00I think the majority of people who promote this &q...I think the majority of people who promote this "blueprint" analogy work in relatively unexpressive languages (e.g Java) where writing code really does feel like putting one brick onto the next. (Of course, that doesn't mean that UML is anything like a blueprint, it just wants to be.)<br /><br />The only case where the analogy truly fits is when a program is specified in a high-level language (Haskell/HOL) and another implementation in a low-level language (C) is produced. For obvious reasons, this is a rare thing to do. (See the <a href="http://www.ertos.nicta.com.au/research/l4.verified/" rel="nofollow">l4.verified</a> project.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975524006824862804.post-88636483397031678662013-01-31T03:33:01.011-08:002013-01-31T03:33:01.011-08:00An excellent and very clear argument, I always kne...An excellent and very clear argument, I always knew the analogy was wrong, but now I know why I thought that. Definitely worth a bookmark, and thanks for taking the time to express it so clearly!Neil Mitchellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13084722756124486154noreply@blogger.com