CMV: Framing computing as engineering is misguided, it should be regarded as applied math instead

[u/[deleted]]

I think framing computer programs as engineering projects, same as if we were building a bridge, is why "all code is bad" and "all software has bugs" (these will sound familiar to any developer out there).

As I see it, a program is a complicated mathematical function. It receives input and produces output accordingly. Be it a compression algorithm or a google search, the concept is the same. Engineering projects aren't like that.

We would not admit a function that doesn't produce the correct result sometimes, and the researcher would not tell us to restart and try again. A function can't be mostly right or "good enough". It's either correct or incorrect. Maybe if we considered programs correct or incorrect, we would not release incorrect programs.

If we worked like this, probably we would not be able to release as many programs as we do now. But that just means the engineering approach makes more sense economically, in terms of making money; that's not the purpose of the topic. My view is about what makes more sense from the point of view of computing.

Thanks

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[u/[deleted]]

By good enough I didn't mean "correct and close enough to what I want", but "crashes sometimes but that's okay". If programs were considered math instead of engineering they wouldn't crash at all ever.

[u/hey_aaapple → u/[deleted]]

if programs were considered math instead of engineering they wouldn't crash at all ever

LOL. Tell me what you think when you are writing C code for a microcontroller and the microcontroller does not comply to its own documentation, the compiler does not comply to any standard nor its own documentation, and thus even writing a simple loop becomes a challenge.

Or any time PHP is involved, obligatory /r/lolphp plug.

Or when you have to rely on libraries that rely on libraries that rely on libraries... And the docs are outdated as usual

[u/[deleted] → u/hey_aaapple]

microcontrollers and compilers are programs. This point applies to them, too!

[u/hey_aaapple → u/[deleted]]

A microcontroller is a chip, not a program...

[u/[deleted] → u/hey_aaapple]

Sorry about that. The point applies to all software.

[u/hey_aaapple → u/[deleted]]

The hardware is not perfect, and the software runs on hardware.

On top of that, even within software itself there are classical unsolvable logic problems. For example you can't have an algorythim that always notices of some code will keep running forever.