> But one thing other professions have that we lack is (1) fairly worked-out fundamental theoretical bases, or at least long experience to draw on, and (2) legal enforcement of standards.
A world with (2) without (1) would be pretty miserable.
Trying to do this today wouldn't be enforcement of standards, it would be "pray you got it right."
We could build standards for building more-robust software, but every piece of software would become vastly more expensive. We would need massive improvements in tools to avoid that.
And then there's the whole security angle... Is it a failing to have your software be impervious to attackers? To what degree? You wouldn't expect most bridges to withstand a determined attacker...
A world with (2) without (1) would be pretty miserable.
Trying to do this today wouldn't be enforcement of standards, it would be "pray you got it right."
We could build standards for building more-robust software, but every piece of software would become vastly more expensive. We would need massive improvements in tools to avoid that.
And then there's the whole security angle... Is it a failing to have your software be impervious to attackers? To what degree? You wouldn't expect most bridges to withstand a determined attacker...