[PatriciaCrowley]

CS profs are talking about small programs. A sort routine, a program to parse a file, maybe a compiler. These are challenging problems but once you think of a solution the actual act of programming it is fairly easy.

SE profs talk about large systems. Many people working for years on the same application, all doing a small bit. The hard part lies in getting correct requirements and hoping they don't change too soon. Integrating all the little parts into one big working system.

Programming is easy. Software engineering is still an unsolved problem. And, in my opinion, not any closer to a solution than in the seventies.

[josephcsible]

Compilers are small?

[nh23423fefe]

Compilers aspire to be something like a total function. Define you inputs and outputs and you are "forced" into a correct implementation.

real software isn't like that. I interpret "small" to mean localized in idea space.

[toast0]

Depends on the compiler/language.