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From: scottw@advsysres.com (Scott A. Whitmire)
Subject: Re: Software Engineering Doesn't Exist [was: C Hackers]
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References: <3vr5sm$g5u@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM> <3vriai$ajc@hamblin.math.byu.edu> <3vtpck$p9v@ornews.intel.com> <1995Aug5.090958.3125@prim.demon.co.uk> <nntpuserDCwMq5.685@netcom.com> <jywcqb@bmtech.demon.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 1995 06:41:12 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.edu:13807 comp.object:36542 comp.lang.c++:142926 comp.lang.smalltalk:26920 comp.software-eng:35610

In <jywcqb@bmtech.demon.co.uk>, Scott Wheeler <scottw@bmtech.demon.co.uk> writes:
>In Article <nntpuserDCwMq5.685@netcom.com> Scott A. Whitmire writes:
>>...The [engineering] discipline came about during the early 1800s when 
>>briges started falling out from under trains. 
>
>Um, your timing is a little out, and probably on the wrong continent. 
>There were no public trains in the early 1800s - the Stockton to 
>Darlington opened in 1825 and steam trains took a few years to reach 
>the colonies. However the physics and mathematics of bridges was 
>studied well before then, including some work by Newton (who built the 
>notorious wooden "Mathematical Bridge" at Cambridge, of which it is 
>said that during maintenance in the 1960's no-one could work out how to 
>put it back together without using some pegs). I am unsure of 
>systematic work before then, but it might be interesting to check 
>Vitruvius. Telford (builder of the Iron Bridge, in the late 18C) and 
>Brunel (Clifton suspension bridge, mid 19C) could also be interesting, 
>but I suspect proper analysis was only necessary for the latter.
>

Yeah, the timing is a little off. It was the latter 1800s. And it was in England, and
the US. The problem wasn't the physics of the bridges structure, or the static load. It
was metal fatigue caused by the vibration of passing trains. Even so, prior analysis of
structural designs appears to have started at this point. While some scientists may have
studied bridge mathematics, these tools were not apparently used in their actual
construction.

If you take issue with this information, you need to deal with Henry Petroski, who wrote
the book "To Engineer is Human," from which I took this information.

Scott A. Whitmire             scottw@advsysres.com
Advanced Systems Research     
25238 127th Avenue SE         tel:(206)631-7868
Kent Washington 98031         fax:(206)630-2238

Consultants in object-oriented development and software metrics.

