[furtiman]

> What is this madness? This doesn't sound like engineering.

To me this sounds exactly like engineering. You craft the tools / apps you want, you build frameworks around complicated concepts that simplify their understanding and usage, at the expense of losing some fundamentalities.

You don't need to know the history and all the evolution of technology to apply it. It is part of software science, for sure though. You can be good at software science and fundamental concepts, but this also does not imply you are a good software engineer.

Would software in general be better if mentality proposed to you would be standard? I doubt, because the learning curve to enter the industry and even begin to start doing something would be immense, you would need to study as much as doctors now do, and only after 10 years you would be able to be "trusted" with your work.

I do agree though that there is a bare minimum that one who calls themselves "Software Engineer" should know and understand, like OS fundamentals, basics of compiler theory, etc., etc., but it is not so restrictive as you suggest.