Did someone mention FETs and manie...?SOIC isn't too bad, wait til you get to the SSOP/TSOP/QFN and worse..Some people here have developed their own frying pan oven type things with success.I've tried a hot air gun with medium success.I use paste and blob it on with a pjn or cocktail stick sharpened by a Boy Scout. Then get a soldering iron with a 0.5mm tip and heat the blob of paste on the pad.One of the advantages that a pro made board has over a home-brew is the solder resist which reduces chances of bridging.If you are stuck/scared then do as BB suggests.. get a SOIC-DIP adaptor.Not cheap. but then screwing up a chip or having to remake a PCB isn't cheap either.Using these various methods SOT23 should be a breeze.Get a good quality eyepiece magnifier and a small tip.There are many solder pastes available. I've been using Multicore recently. They are all expensive. And if doing several soldering sessions you will waste quite a lot as it goes hard when left as a blob on the table. I would suggest for home-brew to get the lower melting temp type.Here are some examples of paste:There may be some cheap crap on Ebay which is good enough.Good luck and have a go.Don't over-blob your paste as capillary action can take it under a chip and if you have any under-chip vias or bare tracks then it can end in tears. Experiment....Then you will have joined the gosh-we're-so-clever SMD club
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I was recently looking at some SPI SRAM chips at Mouser and noticed that a particular IC came in both a SOIC-8 and TSSOP-8 package. The specs seem identical but the price is different (not by much, but different).
Visually, it looks like you could take a SOIC and push down from the middle to flatten the pins out and you would have a TSSOP. I know it's not the same thing but it looks like you could. ;-)
Anyway, given the same specs, why would you choose one package over the other? Both seem to be as easy to solder as the other (pins not under IC). Both seem about the same size.
For me, it would seem you would pick the cheaper of the two but there has to be more than that.
Thanks
EDIT
One thing I didn't make clear, is that I am wondering if the differences are just physical or are there others? I see now that the size difference can be quite large considering....
So I am gathering that if board space is a premium (which it usually is) then use TSSOP. But then why do we need SOIC at all?
Hope that makes it more clear.