I wish, and PCBs, yes, but we are still far from "hardware like software (iterative, casual)".
We will be there if we can send off a design and get back a small quantity of reasonably priced fully assembled devices.
And this is not only about ability alone. Learning the skills to assemble a board is pretty realistically possible for almost anyone. It's just so annoyingly boring and tedious once the initial fascination and excitement has worn off. Contrary to when I learned it, it is already a pretty useless skill and will be comletely futile in the future.
I don't know. There are many PCB services that offer assembly, but as long as have to solder the headers to my Raspberry Pi Pico or Adafruit or what have you myself, it tells me we: We are not there!
The original posting had the word "casual" in it. When I have to worry so much about parts availability and things like this through-hole to prevent prices from exploding it's the opposite of casual.
We will be there if we can send off a design and get back a small quantity of reasonably priced fully assembled devices.
And this is not only about ability alone. Learning the skills to assemble a board is pretty realistically possible for almost anyone. It's just so annoyingly boring and tedious once the initial fascination and excitement has worn off. Contrary to when I learned it, it is already a pretty useless skill and will be comletely futile in the future.