[drsopp]

IMO this kind of work is very important, and is necessary to be able to categorize computer science as engineering. How do you see the future of this kind of programming? Will it become much easier/semi automated? Even mainstream? Could we see operating systems made with these methods?

[flowless]

For embedded and security applications this is extremely important and there's already tons of work done in this field - for example sel4 (https://sel4.systems/), ivory/tower (https://ivorylang.org/), yosys (http://www.clifford.at/papers/2016/yosys-synth-formal/slides...) for FPGAs.

[pvg]

Do you mean 'programming'? Because 'Computer Science' doesn't really need to be categorized as engineering, being a science and all.

[diroussel]

Yeah. It's the other way around. Science is about learning. Engineering is build things based on knowledge gained from using the scientific method.

Building things without using scientific knowledge is not engineering. It's hacking.

[drsopp]

Yes. Mainstream programming is more art than engineering, like how we built buildings before statics.

[pvg]

Buildings before statics were not built by 'art'. That entire 'programming is not like engineering' analogy is just terrible in almost every conceivable dimension, despite its enduring popularity.