Introduction
This is The Standard. A collection of decades of experience in the engineering industry. I authored it to help you find your way through the wide ocean of knowledge. The Standard is not perfect and never will be, and it reflects the ongoing evolution of the engineering industry. While it may be written by one person, it is the collection of thoughts from hundreds of engineers that I've had the honor to interact with and learn from throughout my life.
The Standard holds hundreds of years of collective experiences from many different engineers. As I have traveled the world and worked in various industries, I've had the chance to work with many kinds of engineers - some of them were mad scientists who would fixate on the smallest details of every single routine. And some others have been business engineers who cared more about the end results than the means to get to these results. In addition to others, I've learned from all of them: what makes a simple engineering guide that can light the way for all other engineers to be inspired by it and hopefully follow it. And therefore, I have made this Standard, hoping it will be a compass for engineers to find the best way to engineer solutions that will hopefully change the world.
This Standard is an appeal to engineers worldwide: read through it and make extracts of their experiences and knowledge to enrich an engineering Standard worthy of the industry of software. We live today knowing the origins of the earth, of man, and all the animals. We know how hot boiling water is; how long, a yard. Our ships' masters know the precise measurements of latitude and longitude. Yet, we have neither chart nor compass to guide us through the wide sea of code. The time has come to accord this great craft of ours with the same dignity and respect as the other standards defined by science.
The value of this Standard IS immense for those in the industry who are still finding their way or even those who have lost their way, and the Standard can guide them towards a better future. But more importantly, The Standard is written for everyone, equally, to inspire every engineer or engineer-to-be to look forward to focusing on what matters the most about engineering--its purpose, not its technicalities. When engineers have any form of Standard, I have observed that they start focusing more on what can be accomplished in our world today. And when a team of engineers follows some form of Standard, their energy and focus become more about what can be accomplished, not how it should be accomplished.
I collected, then authored this Standard, hoping it will eliminate much of the confusion and enable engineers to focus on what matters most--use technology as a means for higher purposes and to establish its equivalent goals. The art and science of designing software have come a long way and have proven to be one of the most powerful tools a person could have today. It deserves a proper introduction, and how we educate youth about it matters.
In essence, The Standard is my interpretation of SOLID principles and many other practices and patterns that continue to enrich our designs and development to achieve truly solid systems. The Standard aims to help every engineer find guidance in their day-to-day work. But more importantly, the Standard can ensure every engineer that when they need to build rugged systems that can land on the moon, solve the most complex problems, and ensure the survival of humankind and its evolution--they have the guidance required.
The Standard is intentionally technology-agnostic. Its principles can apply to any programming language, and its tri-nature of foundation can guide any development or design decisions beyond software. I will be using C# on the .NET framework to only materialize and realize the concepts of this Standard. But know that at the early stages of forming this Standard, I was heavily using Scala as a programming language. The Standard shall not be tied to any particular technology, nor shall it be a limitation to those who want to follow it, regardless of their language of preference. But what's more important about The Standard? It's also meant to play the role of inspiration for generations of engineers to come to either follow it, improve on it, or come up with their own. The alternative is to build software without standards, which is subject to chaos and injustice when it comes to investing the best time into the best efforts. Our industry today is in chaos in terms of standardization. Unqualified individuals may have or take leadership positions and influence those who are much more qualified to make unfortunate decisions. The Standard is the option to set a measure for expertise, influence, and knowledge depth before making any decisions.
The Standard is also my labor of love for the rest of the world. It is driven by and written with a passion for enhancing the engineering experience and producing efficient, rugged, configurable, pluggable, and reliable systems that can withstand any challenges or changes as it occurs almost daily in our industry.
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