newbie building a scratch-built computer

[Tony Duell]

> > And learn to do it 'by hand', not just using CAD tools. The latter are
> > undoubtedly very useful, but knowing how to do things by hand will let
> > you know when said CAD systems have made a right mess of your design.
> 
> Over and over again I see newbies struggling with what they're trying to =
> do=20
> and what the simulation is telling them should be happening,  which isn't=
> =20
> necessarily all that connected to the real world.

CAD tools are undobtedly very useful and powerful if used correctly. But 
that last qualifier is important ;-). My view is that the use of such 
tools increases the 'difference' between good and bad designers, they 
make good designers (who know how to use them, and not to trust 
everything the simulator says!) even better. And they make poor designers 
even worse, bexause such people fiddle on the simulator until it seems to 
work, not rralsing the result probably won't work in practice, or any 
least won't work reliably. 

-tony