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How Software Engineering Differs From Computer Science
cconnell sends in a piece he wrote for Dr. Dobb's which "argues that software development will never be a fully formal, rigorous discipline, and the reason is that software engineering involves humans as central to the process." Quoting:
"Software maintainability, for example, is the ability of people to understand, find, and repair defects in a software system. The maintainability of software may be influenced by some formal notions of computer science — perhaps the cyclomatic complexity of the software's control graph. But maintainability crucially involves humans, and their ability to grasp the meaning and intention of source code. The question of whether a particular software system is highly maintainable cannot be answered just by mechanically examining the software. The same is true for safety. Researchers have used some formal methods to learn about a software system's impact on people's health and property. But no discussion of software safety is complete without appeal to the human component of the system under examination."
.. to become a rigorous engineering discipline. It's not quite there yet. I am not convinced that it ever will be. Writing software is a creative process, arguably even an artistic one. Well understood rules can be followed, provably correct algorithms applied, formal design methods used, but it is still a human creative process, and as such, I suspect inherently non-rigorous.
Computer Science compared to Software Engineering?
Think aeronautics. The science of aeronautics ponders the laws of aerodynamics and the laws of flight.
Engineering aeronautics is all about building the damn aircraft.
Trying to associate Microsoft with "fun" is like trying to associate Satan with aromatherapy. -Tycho
In this case, "Physical analysis" would be running tests, deployment, crash analysis, etc. If we're comparing software engineering to "real" engineering, I feel it would be disingenuous to knock down software engineering because it works with code instead of physical items. The complexity is still there.
For me, what delineates "engineer" is much better defined in my mind by "engineering type." While a software engineers, civil engineers, and mathematicians may vary quite a bit in average disposition, they are more similar than dissimilar compared to the rest of the population. I genuinely believe that there is a major difference between the engineering mind (or in my case, CS), and everyone else. Similar to how painters, composers, and photographers all may vary in general, yet they're more similar to each other than the rest of the population.
So, I'm sure, are a lot of things I don't recognize, like designing a sky-scraper or space shuttle.
Programming is an art, Anyone can follow instructions and follow an existing style or try to paint a realistic scene, but to come up with a skilled interpretation that really conveys a meaning takes a better painter. To bring together 20 painters, outline a collaboration and manage the production of some giant, detailed interpretation takes a master--at this point natural talent starts to mean more than training, and no level of training can improve someone without talent.
Anyone can write a small program. You can fit 20 generic programmers in a room and have them each write a small program. You might even be able to get them to join the programs somewhat-properly, but the whole thing will never go smoothly.
One or two really good programmers will probably out-produce 20 people that "know how to program".
How many amateur painters do you need to create something like the sistine chapel?
Just because most people can't see the art that allows large programs to work doesn't mean it's not there. In fact, most people can't tell any type of good art from bad without some training.
Computer Science compared to Software Engineering?
Think aeronautics. The science of aeronautics ponders the laws of aerodynamics and the laws of flight.
Engineering aeronautics is all about building the damn aircraft.
That's pretty much how I think myself.
Engineering would stop being engineering if it becomes a science.
Engineering is in deep real world, with human nature and business requirements intervening all the time. Science (like religion) is in some sort of ideal world, vacuum, where all is simple and described by a formula. They are both trying to understand a problem - but from different angles. So different - or better say orthogonal - that they are guaranteed to cross only rarely.
Writing software is a creative process, arguably even an artistic one.
Same with science. I'd say that in the respect there is not much difference.
The difference is as I try to put it above is that in engineering "it must work," while in science it doesn't even have to compile. It only has to work in some ideal world with unlimited resources and non-existent foreign factors.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.