Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1533085
8 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2025 The Shaughnessy Report Feature Column by Andy Shaughnessy, I-CONNECT007 Breaking Down the Language Barrier According to Ethnologue's 2024 update, there are currently 7,164 living languages being spoken today. It makes you wonder: Do they count PCB design as a language? PCB fabrica- tion? Assembly? Over the years, I've learned a decent amount of Spanish and French. I can speak enough to get around, and if someone is speaking Span- ish or French fairly slowly, I can usually under- stand the gist of the conversation. But I still miss a lot of the little things—prepositions, adverbs, verb tense, and other points of gram- mar that can change the entire meaning of the conversation. When we started planning this issue, I couldn't help comparing PCB designers and fabricators to citizens of different countries trying to communicate. ey can each compre- hend most of what the other person is saying, but many of the little things are lost in transla-