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In building simulation, as in several other domains, traditional monolithic simulation codes are still in dominance over simulators based on symbolic equations in a general modeling language. Introduced in 1998, IDA Indoor Climate and Energy has become the first widely spread thermal building performance simulator based on the new technology. Developing a full-fledged dynamic whole-building simulation pro- gram is a formidable endeavor in any setting and since the first beta version in 1997 a number of les- sons have been learned. The paper shares some of these experiences concerning general program struc- ture and GUI design as well as issues specifically linked to equation-based modeling using a variable timestep differential-algebraic (DAE) solver.