Opinion: Why IDEs for hardware design fail

By EETimes

September 12, 2012

Hardware designers hate integrated development environments (IDEs), and they have good reasons to do so. Most EDA vendors build IDEs that lock the user in. They force a workflow on the user, limit the number EDA tools that work with their IDE, and provide half-baked usability. The only way to fix this is to stop using IDEs that are built by EDA (electronic design automation) companies. Electronic design engineers should start learning and copying from their colleagues in software engineering.

What are IDEs?
IDEs are graphical front ends that tie together all of the tools you need for developing software (or for designing hardware). The general look is pretty much the same for all IDEs. You have one or more windows with several views: an explorer that shows a list of files, a big editor view, navigation views, error views, and dozens more depending on the tools you are using. The idea is that you will never have to leave this IDE. It serves as a cockpit from where you can control every aspect of your work.

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