[Discuss] Programming vs Engineering

[me at mattgillen.net (Matthew Gillen)]

On 1/21/2012 4:37 PM, Richard Pieri wrote:
> The title "Engineer" has a specific, legal meaning.  Professional use
> of the Engineer title requires rigorous education, testing,
> internship and licensure.

Says who?  People who are PEs?  Look up the word engineer on dict.org.
None of the definitions say *anything* about licensure.

> engineer
>       n 1: a person who uses scientific knowledge to solve practical
>            problems

That describes my job better than pretty much any other word.  But it
seems "Engineer" is a reserved term and I can't use it for my job title...

> None of these exist for professional programmers.  Therefore, there
> are no Professional Software Engineers, regardless of what is on our
> business cards[1].  All of this also applies to the "Architect"
> title.  Architects have similar education and testing requirements to
> Engineers, and like Engineers they must be licensed to practice
> professionally.  Use of the Engineer and Architect titles for
> computer specialists is nothing more than aggrandizement.

You're making essentially the same argument as this: someone who has a
PhD is aggrandizing themselves if they call themselves 'Doctor', because
they don't take all the tests that a MD does.

I'm sorry, I just don't accept the made-up rule (I will note that this
isn't the first time I've been lectured on not being a PE) that says the
word "Engineer" is off limits unless you've passed a PE test.  Go ahead,
be mad about it.  Get indignant about it.  I don't really care.  I'm a
Software Engineer.  Most of the world agrees with me.

You want to say that PEs have rigorous standards?  Fine, I won't argue.
 I don't put "Professional Engineer" on my business cards.  I know what
it means.  But you have to realize that you've just taken two common
language words that describe me, and said "you can't use those
together".  How should I describe myself and my job without those words?
 Does that mean I'm an amateur?  I'm an engineer for my day job,
therefore I am a professional engineer.  There, I didn't make it in to a
proper noun.  Does that make you happy?

Matt