On 20 Aug 01, at 22:06, Morris, Steve wrote:
Maybe. Really I'm just interested in what exactly a theoretical basis for software engineering would look like.
I think my problem with this discussion, and the cause of the different approaches, is that you ask your question in ambiguous terms. You ask for a "theory of everything" in the generic category of software engineering. Software engineering is not a science but a discipline, or perhaps a skill, or maybe just programming. The term 'software engineering" usually refers to the process of writing programs with the imputation that these programs match some standard; whether it be correctness, or matching the specs, or merely being useful. It is thus not suprising that we keep getting lost in the process and techniques of programming. That statement is almost a tautology. What else would a theory of "software engineering" address. I would like you to restate your query with a better idea of the specific questions you are trying to answer. I know what specific questions a "unified field theory" is trying to answer. What question are you trying to answer?