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And boom-ding-outch, it's all software now!
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RoGeorge:
At first it was electricity, then telegraphy, then telephony, then audio, and radio, and TV, and so on, there was so much tinkering in there to have fun with.  What a time to be alive!   ^-^

Then digital electronics came, then computers, still plenty of fun.   :-+
Then suddenly it all turned into EDA tools, and simulations, and writing programs.  It's all software now.   :-//

- Online searching instead of learning from paper books
- Simulation took precedence over prototyping
- Software installs replace soldering
- Latest trend is piles of data and AI replacing design or even fundamental research   :scared:

Is that good or bad, or just being overly-nostalgic?
  :popcorn:
newbrain:

--- Quote from: RoGeorge on July 30, 2021, 01:41:04 pm ---Is that good or bad, or just being overly-nostalgic?

--- End quote ---
Yes.
esepecesito:
Sometimes I also have this feeling, before it was much cooler.
But then I think it is just different. There are many things to do. You can do things now that you could only imagine years ago.
And you can still make hardware. You can still play with a protoboard. At some point that will be gone.
rsjsouza:
I have absolutely no beef with the first bullet - despite the quality of certain scans of older equipment can be detrimental to the learning experience, the availability that digitalization and massive distribution of information is very beneficial. (I still love to read actual papers, though).

The second bullet is also a huge benefit in my opinion. Sure, people may get complacent but it helps people get closer to their solution when moving to the prototype phase - I have seen many give up electronics due to being worn out by constant failed attempts to do simpler things (we usually hear the stories of folks that persevered despite such adversity). Also, simulations greatly help understand the behaviour of parts as it is much simpler to change parameters. One added benefit is to bring that first spark to people that have very minimal access to parts and tools. The availability of simpler software simulations was already quite spread 30+ years ago (especially in the university, where pirated SPICE copies were the norm), so this is not necessarily new.

The third and fourth bullets are the hardest ones IMHO. Software and programming are much easier to do than hardware, thus this can easily drive people away from electronics themselves. That would also be true for other trades/specializations as well.


--- Quote from: RoGeorge on July 30, 2021, 01:41:04 pm ---- Online searching instead of learning from paper books
- Simulation took precedence over prototyping
- Software installs replace soldering
- Latest trend is piles of data and AI replacing design or even fundamental research   :scared:

--- End quote ---
RJSV:
The thing about software is:
   You can have a machine where 32 Kbytes are sitting there, empty. Writing some 8 bit assembly language, with big enough pointers (like 16 bit pointers), can be, actually, an intimidating challenge.
It's a bit like having book publishers issue BLANK books, with, say, 250 blank pages, for an author to fill in.
   I've been in software contract situations, where job got done, on time, but customer sees 'ONLY' 3K of code, and kept wanting to ask / comment about the left-over space, being wasted.

   "How come your CODE doesn't occupy the available PROM space ? Like the other person's code did ?"

Well, first of all, not selling by the 'pound' weight...
   It's a bit like being handed a giant prototyping board, and your circuit only occupies one tiny corner of it.
Hard to explain, but similar to 'Writer's Block' syndrome.
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