1.6 Conclusion
I first used EAGLE around 2003, and though it had many of the same capabilities as today, it tended to crash at least three times an hour. On message forums, users railed against EAGLE’s instability and exchanged workarounds for dealing with its many bugs. But CadSoft persevered in its work on EAGLE, and nearly 10 years later, the bugs and instability are gone. Instead of complaining, today’s users defend the application fiercely.
I’m a devoted EAGLE user, and my goal in writing this chapter is to explain why I think the tool is so wonderful. EAGLE provides a full suite of design features, including a schematic editor, a board editor, device editors, and a CAM processor. Its libraries contain thousands and thousands of electronic components. It’s stable, runs at high speed, and if I encounter issues, there are many online resources I can turn to.
One of the reasons I’m so impressed with EAGLE is its generous licensing. Users can try out the tool for free and continue using it indefinitely. If they’d like to take advantage of its advanced features, they can purchase a license without spending great sums of money.