On Thu, 2009-05-14 at 13:25 -0400, al davis wrote: > Educators typically use simulators very poorly, as if they > themselves don't understand. In most cases, the total use is a > few specified runs with a couple of graphs, that you do after > everything else is done. A more appropriate use of simulators > is to explore things that you can't see with real measurements. > There is a lot that you can find out about a circuit that you > can't measure in a practical way. > > Students need to learn to be flexible, and they need to learn to > use computers effectively, not just by kicking the GUI a few > times. EE's, even analog designers, need to learn some serious > programming. >
You're right, of course. In mitigation let me say that the particular course for which I use swcad (LTSpice) is 4 x 2hr sessions for a dozen students who've never seen an electronic cad package before. I try to give them an understanding of the process from design to schematic to test by simulation to pcb. I use gschem/gattrib/gsch2pcb/pcb and swcad. The choice of swcad was a compromise to give me a better chance of fitting it all in. It just gives them a taster for what might be possible using simulation. Sorry if I've started a swcad/gnucap/windows/linux war. I just happened to have something I annually spend some time putting together and suddenly realised that it might be useful to someone else. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Peter Baxendale University of Durham peter.baxend...@durham.ac.uk School of Engineering tel +44 191 33 42492 South Road fax +44 191 33 42408 Durham DH1 3LE England ------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user