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A comment on The undocumented Android change that led to aCropalypse was reported during beta. Parent comment

Re:The undocumented Android change that led to aCropalypse w... by tialaramex on Friday March 31, 2023 @07:42PM (#35395292)
> If a civil engineer signs off on a bridge and it collapses during rush hour, he doesn't get to just say, "Whelp, boss rushed me, blame him."

He doesn't but this is actually a problem. Ideally, he doesn't get to say this because he chose to rush and if he'd said "No" instead then the boss can't do anything about it. In reality, especially in the US, his boss will just fire him and hire somebody else more co-operative and he knows it.

Without a strong, legally supported and well resourced professional organisation behind people with an obligation like this, they will get exploited and then blamed by people who are insulated from the effects.

Do you see such an organisation for software engineers in the United States of America? Or even most of Europe? Because I do not.

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Re:The undocumented Android change that led to aCropalypse w... by ryandrake on Friday March 31, 2023 @07:47PM (#35395334)
I fully agree a strong, organized professional organization for software developers would solve a lot of problems the craft faces. If we had something like the Bar Association or the Medical Board, would we have to keep implementing FizzBuzz and reversing linked lists every interview just to prove a basic level of competence?
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Re:The undocumented Android change that led to aCropalypse w... by ElectricalUnion on Friday March 31, 2023 @08:01PM (#35395451)
Not, but then the "Software Developer Board" would apply those as certification tests instead.
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Re:The undocumented Android change that led to aCropalypse w... by mandevil on Saturday April 01, 2023 @01:46AM (#35397502)
But you'd take the exam once rather than having to do it every few years when you want to change jobs.
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Re:The undocumented Android change that led to aCropalypse w... by robertlagrant on Saturday April 01, 2023 @05:19AM (#35398661)
> Do you see such an organisation for software engineers in the United States of America? Or even most of Europe? Because I do not.

The problem is that medicine and law move orders of magnitude more slowly than software, at the moment. Software is evolving unbelieveably faster, and its problems are far more diverse. As it settles down, if it ever does, we may be able to calcify roles more formally, and then regulate those roles. But at the moment it's the wild west.

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