Theory and Tools: Why You Need Both

A simulator will run any Verilog you give it, but it cannot decide whether the circuit you described is the right circuit. That judgment belongs to the designer. Enough theory — truth tables, gate behavior, how combinational logic composes — is what lets you reason clearly about how a design should behave before you run anything.

The tools then do the part people are bad at: exhaustive checking. A supplied checker drives inputs and compares outputs against expected values far faster and more reliably than reading code by eye.

The two halves are complementary. Theory sets the intent; tools verify the match. This course interleaves both, so each lesson gives you a small piece of theory and an immediate way to test whether your circuit honors it.

Proof, the word this course keeps using, means the saved, checkable record of what you claimed and what the tools actually reported. That is why it needs both halves: judgment supplies the claim, and the tools supply the report. A claim with no report is an opinion; a report with no claim is a log nobody can grade.