16 Feb
2010
16 Feb
'10
9:42 p.m.
On Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 15:33, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
... I do feel very strongly that there
are certain skills, and certain knowledge that are _essential_ if you
want to do any form of electronics. Of course if you don't want to do
electronics, then you may not need these skills, I have no problem with that.
I would including soldering on that list. ...
I would also claim you need to understand some basic electronics. ...
There is, IMHO, one problem to totallu dumbing things down, and if this
makes me elitist, so be it. It's this. If everyone thinks they can do
electronic design just becasue they've plugged a sensor board into a
microntroller board, then those people who really can design at the chip
level or below are no longer valued, at least not by the majority. And
that is a pity
Als, if you're not careful, this 'plug a few modules together'
methodology leads to a number of very poor, over-complex designs. And
some of them may even end up as products :-( I am sure I've told you how
I once showed a so-called designer who wanted to use a microcontrolelr
module + input interface modules + ... as part of a control system that
his problem could be solved using few lengths of wire and otherwise
unused contacts on his relays and swithces. Hmmm...
Tony, I think you are being elitist, but not in an evil, dismissive
way but more in the (Monty Python-esque) "in MY days we had to walk
uphill both ways in 10 ft snow-drifts" kind of way. :-) I can totally
see where you are coming from, but think you are a bit too dismissive
of the "kids". I will just argue that the kids will be alright, in
the end.
Yes, breadboards are horrible, electrically. But everyone has to
start learning electronics somewhere and somehow, and solderless
breadboards allow students to try things quickly, blow stuff up, burn
transistors etc, etc - I still have a board somewhere with blackened
traces :-) It is the best way to teach. If you force students to
design, check and solder even simple low-speed circuits, they will
loose interest quickly.
Plug-in modules are simply the next step in evolution from TTL chips.
The dumbing down of design is not as harmful as you may think;
Nicolaus Wirth once decried the poisoning of young programmers caused
by millions of BASIC home computers - see how that turned out!
(ummmm.... bad example? Kidding! Bad programmers are probably bad
programmers no matter what language they start out with, good
programmers can learn and adapt to better languages)
Many new hardware designs are wasteful, and part of the problem is the
availability of pre-made pre-packaged modules; in exchange, new cool
devices are being designed and brought to market at breakneck speed.
And I'm certain that even in the 70's, people were sticking op-amps
where a transistor or two would have been adequate, so there is
nothing new under the sun.
The ones that end up as "real" designers (at hardware companies) will
probably be the ones that care enough to go deeper into the details.
I love all that stuff you can get nowadays. If only I would have more time :-)
--
Joachim Thiemann :: http://www.tsp.ece.mcgill.ca/~jthiem