[d33lio]

LT-Spice is absolute trash and basically why I decided to leave EE for CS in college... among many other reasons! Essentially, because after learning all kinds of math my linear systems prof basically said "yeah, at some point you just have to simulate everything because the math you learned only applies maybe 60% of the time". Granted, I do not think I was exactly destined to be a great electrical engineer.

Electronics simulation is fascinating, especially given the AI models used to do this. Layout gets especially complex when rf-traces / layers have to be considered or when you want to have an arrangement of traces to high bandwidth components all be the same length. Interaction between multi-layer vias is also insane (the guy who built the UberTooth1 bluetooth hacking dongle has a great defcon talk on the subject).

The best analog I can come up with is the debate / discrepancies between the US and European weather simulation models. Fascinating space, I got to work a few feet away from the Julia team at the Harvard Launch Lab way back in the day at a college internship. Of the few interactions I had with their team they are great people and unbelievably brilliant. If any of you are reading this, my hat's off to your engineering abilities - I'm still impressed by the fact you guys identified an error in intel's x86 instruction sets and yeeted the issue in less than 24hrs.

[ultrasounder]

Been using LTSpice for the last decade or so and am just fine simulating everything from Buck to current sense circuits to battery monitoring systems to HBridge. Don’t know what your beef is with LTSpice but still can’t get around the fact you quit your discipline for the lack of a better tool. If you didn’t like what you had to deal with why didn’t you pivot to CS and invent a better simulation tool. Just saying.

[d33lio]

I'm really just being cheeky, the writing was on the wall for me about three years in that EE wasn't for me.

Granted, I make a great living writing software and honestly have really benefitted from my 67% complete EE degree. Software ppl generally have zero idea how computers work / how to really leverage hardware bits to accelerate certain workloads. The ideal CS education for me is based in EE but also starts with both lisp and C. NOT Python. However, I was a horribly distracted student throughout college so I really should be the last person giving recs for coursework.

[munificent]

> still can’t get around the fact you quit your discipline for the lack of a better tool.

When people are at the very beginning of some path, they have almost no attachment to it and the smallest nudge one way or the other can change their course.

Think about how many people say, "If it wasn't for <random elementary school teacher> I would have never gotten into <field they became famous in>."

[filterfish]

I got into electronics, which pretty much defined my career, at 14 when I went to technical college and the only reason I chose electronics was because I wouldn't get bullied as much! I struggled with it for the first few months and after I finally "got it" I fell in love with it!

I don't work as an Electronics engineer any more but I still have a significant interest.

[vallas]

I agree LT-Spice and many scientific software have terrible experience. There is a massive opportunity in designing better UI and UX in the modeling/simulation space (Julia's market). I can't wait for the web to clean this space. I believe modern JavaScript and more ergonomic low-level tech will help (i.e. Rust, better C#). I'm skeptic though.

[rightbyte]

You want the component parameters entered for you. A nice UI is secondary.

Also LT-Spice being native desktop is great. No way the lock it into the cloud now.