[Edu-sig] RE: [Tutor] Off topic musings

[Morris, Steve]

 > 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?