[wfjackson3]

I think this is a mis characterization. Mechanical engineering is a much older, much more mature field than computer science/software engineering. As a field of engineering study matures, many of the solutions to possible problems become commonplace, or at least they become trivial. New problems to solve are less and less frequently actually new, but rather just novel deviations from a commonly solved type of problem. However, capping the well is a completely new type of problem. It is one that has not been solved so many times that accounting for all of the variables is easy. Think about that next time before you criticize other disciplines.