Engineering tools: An aid or menace to engineering education

The authors note that the age of the computer has brought with it a host of software tools to help the engineer do a better job. Like most innovations, engineering tools have both good and bad points. The issue of good and bad is often dependent on the particular tool used. The authors try to present both sides of this issue, keeping in mind that an engineering tool is a device or a means by which the capabilities of a person can be extended beyond what is normally possible, or which can decrease the effort involved in solving a problem. Examples of such tools include schematic capture, printed circuit and VLSI layout, editors, spreadsheets, simulators, and programmable logic device compilers. >