Diode – Build, program, and simulate hardware

Diode wants to bring your hardware workshop to the browser with shiny, clickable parts—resistors, capacitors, LEDs, even the iconic 555 timer—and a glossy 3D vibe that makes circuits feel like a toybox. The first wave of reactions? Heart eyes. One early fan declared it “looks amazing,” and the hype train left the station at full speed. It’s a glam makeover for wires and chips, and folks loved the idea of building and simulating without touching a single real component.

Then came the plot twist. The more people poked, the louder the “but…” got. “Looks great, but pretty difficult to work with,” said one builder, rallying a chorus asking for a simple top‑down view to see where parts actually plug in. Another summed it up: the 3D sheen is cool, but it makes assembly harder. A technical voice chimed in with a red flag: it “lacks exception catching” if WebGL (a browser graphics feature) is off, meaning some users might just hit a wall. And the feature‑hungry crowd arrived: can we “input the circuit as code,” please? Translation: the artists love the sparkle; the engineers want controls that don’t get in the way. It’s Team Wow vs Team Workflow, and the UI is the real resistor.