It undermines a long tradition of designing and building infrastructure in the public interest.

Old, but fun read that argues that today’s programmers are not like typical Engineers and shouldn’t really call themselves that as Engineering requires certification, is subject to government regulation, bear a burden to the public, etc.

  • leisesprecher@feddit.orgEnglish
    296·
    12 days ago

    All this gate keeping is bullshit, but I do have to agree that we are really bad at actually engineering.

    • drd@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
      92·
      12 days ago

      I mean you can’t go to the store purchase a stethoscope and call yourself a doctor. Similarly, programmers do not require any sort of certifications or are heavily regulated unlike engineers. It’s an interesting argument for sure.

      • Windex007@lemmy.worldEnglish
        10·
        12 days ago

        It depends on the jurisdiction.

        In Alberta, Canada, for example, employers will hire programmers from two distinct pools of educational streams: Computer Scientists and Software Engineers.

        CS programs are governed by the faculties of science, software engineers by the schools of engineering.

        The software engineers take the same oaths or whatever and belong to the same organization as the other engineers (in Alberta, APEGA) and are subject the same organizational requirements to be able to describe themselves as engineers. They can have the designation revoked the same way a civil engineer could.

        Practically speaking, as someone who works with both, I don’t see a meaningful difference in the actual work produced by grads of either stream. But at least in my jurisdiction the types of arguments being made don’t really hold because it is a regulated professional designation.