Learning RobotC

[adampaskowitz]

Other than the online video lessons from Carnegie Mellon, can anyone recommend resources for learning RobotC?

I really just want to find some books, but I'm not familiar enough with RobotC or with programming in general to make an informed decision.

Would a manual on C++ teach me what I need to know to program in RobotC?

Is RobotC just C++ with some extra robot-specific vocabulary built in?

[Skinkworks]

Other than the online video lessons from Carnegie Mellon, can anyone recommend resources for learning RobotC?

RobotC specifically can be learned by reading the documentation. Learning C, however, requires a good book or a teacher. "C Programming for the Absolute Beginner" is how I learned, but that was a while ago (~2005), and there's probably a better book than that somewhere.

For the NXT and FTC specific portions of RobotC (which I assume is why you're learning RobotC), the FTC Forum has plenty of questions-and-answers that should cover any weird problems you have (Disclaimer: I've answered about two-thirds of all the questions on there).

Would a manual on C++ teach me what I need to know to program in RobotC?

RobotC is straight C, not C++. There are some differences, notably, C lacks objects.

Is RobotC just C++ with some extra robot-specific vocabulary built in?

Again, RobotC is C. Given that, RobotC is just C with some extra robot-specific vocab.

[adampaskowitz]

Thanks, Skinkworks. That helps a lot. I knew there was a simple answer; I just had no idea what it was.

[AsianRookie]

I would recommend http://www.robotc.net/wiki/Main_Page

It has the API for all supported modules, basic programming, and programming tips, and more!

[Fuzzball27]

If you have questions about robot C the guy that created it is on the mindboards forum (http://mindboards.sourceforge.net/). I believe his user name is xander or something similar.

[Xenozero]

Hello, I am a basic frc alumni mentor and im trying to mentor an ftc team in my old school, I just wanted to find out the ftc specific code that the competition requires to run. All of the resources that are listed around the interwebs do not dictate the specific competition code nor any examples. If anyone has any samples of finished code with an autonomous and operator control period it would be very helpful.

[connor.worley]

Just an aside: RobotC is not a superset of standards-compliant C. It does lack some C features/behavior.

[daniel_dsouza]

In our experience with the Cortex, our team has found the built in examples to be very enlightening. Some inductive reasoning here and there can be just as effective as finding a great forum or a book!