... becomes more organised and standard procedures are established. The third stage in development sees the emergence of professional engineering. At this stage engineering is carried out by educated professionals who use formal analysis and scientific theory to understand and verify their designs. Characteristics of engineering Engineering projects tackle clearly defined and quantified problems. Another aspect of modern engineering is the use of systematised knowledge, this knowledge gives the engineer a good understanding both of the problems that he or she is addressing and the materials available for their solution. A science-based knowledge engineer will have considerable knowledge of proven procedures and designs which they can reuse where appropriate. An important aspect of this codified knowledge is the ability to learn from failures. SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT AS ENGINEERING? Development of compiler technology • In the 1950s when high-level programming languages were first being designed and implemented, compiler writing was regarded as difficult. • The development of the first compiler for ...

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