“I got a C in that class because I couldn't get the software to work correctly!” Stewart’s complaint was actually a common problem that other students in his Introduction to Computer Architecture course were facing.
Stewart understood the concepts involved in creating the logic circuit for this particular assignment and he was confident that he would receive full credit. When he discovered that his answer was wrong, he approached his instructor and asked, “I don’t understand what happened. I was sure that I had drawn this circuit correctly when I did it on paper!”
The instructor reviewed Stewart’s hand-written work and sure enough, he had the correct answer. Stewart’s problem was not in the way he designed the circuit. His mistake took place somewhere within the process he followed as he was using the software.
Teddy Dreiser interview 14:50 (audio link)
[With] the original text-based LogicSim program, Dr. Newberry said he always had problems where he would have someone get a 0 on the assignment and they’d come in and show him the piece of paper that they had sketched the circuit out on and the and the circuit was completely correct.. but there was an error somewhere in them transcribing their drawing...
When I was in the class I think I had one that was in the order of 3000 to 4000 lines long.. and it’s very unintuitive for how it hooks up... so that’s the biggest thing, just not having to deal with that unintuitive step and people having a hard time and maybe losing points for something they do understand but can’t translate. So it takes another block out of the way of the learning.