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Roland Perry

In message , at 13:29:15 on Thu, 26 Nov
2015, d remarked:

Hard to put one's finger on it. It is using the verb "build" as a
noun in an untraditional way. Building is the noun derived from to
build.

The OED's oldest example of "build" as a noun (= "a building") is
attributed to 1387. It shows it as obsolete but changes in English
usage are often "back to the future"

Also commonly used the last 20 years in software engineering to describe
the output from an assembler/compiler/linker.

"Software engineering" is another recent phrase. Its what used to be known
as programming but I guess that didn't have enough gravitas for some people.

Long ago there were "Systems analysts" who drew up the specifications
for what they thought needed doing, and programmers were just the
"brickies" putting it together.

IMO programming is as much art as it is engineering and doesn't really
deserve the engineering moniker, especially given that most of us who work
in programming don't have the professional qualifications or certfications
equivalent to those who do real engineering. And no, Mickeysoft Certfied
Engineer doesn't count.

There's a whole spectrum of different complexities of programming, but
the closer you get to the metal the more you need to understand the
engineering function you are trying to provide.
--
Roland Perry