ABSTRACT
This struggle between two groups of experienced engineers is occurring because failure to meet the standard is almost the only method we currently have of preventing poor designs from being built. As a result, good designers who have learned difficult lessons about complex behaviour will be found to produce more expensive structures than ignorant designers, until more scientific design procedures are developed. The traditional solution to this problem is to undertake research to try to resolve the technical issues and produce general rules. However, research is both slow and expensive and the economic benefit is not easily identified in advance by the potential beneficiaries, so this route is not very satisfactory.
