When I started in electronics, it was a different world than today. At that time, the cool thing was wire wrapping, which I never did get to use that much. Instead I went with various project boards from Radio Shack or ordered via telephone from DigiKey or Mouser. By the time the 555 and 741 integrated circuits came out I had started using breadboards, and at times I still pull out a Radio Shack breadboard to use.
That is, as long as the project at hand does not use surface mount components. But it is getting harder to find the non-surface mount variety of electronic components. Besides, a properly done project using a computer generated PCB layout and surface mount components is small, looks professional, and really is quite durable.
The real truth is that you almost have to go with a decent printed circuit board to make use of the surface mount components. But it makes for such a nice finished product, I wholeheartedly suggest using a provider of Multilayer PCBs for a project of any decent size. If you have a simple enough design you can even make your etched and drilled circuit boards, but once you enter the realm of dual or multi-layered boards you should consider the alternative.
Of course, to really make use of a multilayer PCB, you need to have decent PCB layout software, and it is especially nice if it supports auto-routing. There are many different packages to choose from, and the prices range from free (and open source) to the highly developed and expensive. Many of the paid software titles offer a demo version for you to explore and see if it is a good fit for your needs.
The good news is that the extra effort pays off huge in end project functionality. Today's micro controllers run circles around the dedicated processors of just a few years ago, and the hobbyist or semi-professional can create finished electronics that we could only dream about back in the day of discrete ICs. Writing the code to empower your electronics project can take on its own craftsmanship, and allows you to explore and utilize the full capabilites of the hardware.
If you have an interest in electronics, I recommend that you start today with a micro controller or arduino project – you will be amazed at what you can build.
Arduino
Arduino is an open-source single-board microcontroller, descendant of the open-source Wiring platform, designed to make the process of using electronics in multidisciplinary projects more accessible. The hardware consists of a simple open hardware design for the Arduino board with an Atmel AVR processor and on-board input/output support. The software consists of a standard programming language compiler and the boot loader that runs on the board.
source:wikipedia
