Oh, boooo. Boooo! Come on, you were lining up a classic crowd favorite, the "Real Engineers understand the fundamentals" attack, then they hit you with the ol' "Some programming courses teach the fundamentals" and you come back with this? No pivot to credentialing, no tirade about how software is all virtual so it's not the same as building something with real materials, no grand declaration about how real engineers have to take their jobs seriously because lives are at stake? Just "no it's programming not engineering they're different"? Weak.

Back in my day we used to argue about whether or not software engineering is real engineering with some gumption.

[+] FiniteBanjo@feddit.online -7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Engineers are rarely menial labourers so idk what you mean by programming being virtual. Like 98% of engineering work is planning diagrams.

My argument has always been that the work is different between a syntax ape and an engineer.

[–] queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm referring to the tropes of this tired-ass debate, I'm not saying there's any merit to any of them. My heckle is mainly concerned with the lack of substance, even cliched or overused substance, behind the argument you're trying to make. It sounds, based on the disrespectful way you describe coders as "syntax apes", that you don't really understand the craft of software development, the principles of engineering practice, or how the two intersect.

You sound like a clueless manager who thinks of devs as interchangeable and easily replaceable cogs in a software factory.