Looking for contributors for an open-source FRC library

[joelg236]

Hey off-season browsers,

The last year, I've been on a journey to make a base API that can make programming easier for teams. The goal has be a moving target so far, but I now have a pretty clear vision and project set up.

What I'm looking for

People who know Java
People with experience with documentation
People who have programmed plugins for popular IDEs (Eclipse, Netbeans, IntelliJ)
People who who C++


If you fit under any of those categories, please tell me about it! I'm not looking for any huge time commitments, just for more people with different skill-sets than me.

Project here (https://github.com/Summer-of-FIRST/atalibj/wiki)

*Code is here - https://github.com/Summer-of-FIRST/atalibj

[ohrly?]

Love it. I built an eerily similar library in 2012, so I'll submit a pull request once I change my code to match yours.

Two questions: will this be built on top of WPILibJ and replace it later, or is it designed to replace WPILibJ from the start? Is there any C++ component, or is this solely a java library? (I'm fine with either)

Also, it may be wise to contain the platform specific (low level FPGA commands / WPILibJ calls) to a small area of the code, so that ATALibJ can be ported to the 2015 platform more easily.

One last thing: it might be better to put everything under org.first, because http://first.edu/ isn't related to FRC

[joelg236]

Thanks for the interest.

will this be built on top of WPILibJ and replace it later, or is it designed to replace WPILibJ from the start?

It's currently built on top of wpilibj. I plan to eventually (hopefully) make it self-dependent.

Is there any C++ component, or is this solely a java library?

No C++ equivalent yet. I was hoping somebody could port it for me, since I'm not familiar with C++ yet.

Also, it may be wise to contain the platform specific (low level FPGA commands / WPILibJ calls) to a small area of the code, so that ATALibJ can be ported to the 2015 platform more easily.

I agree. Hopefully I can make the implementation hidden enough that it will easily be replaced.

[joelg236]

If there is anyone with experience with technical documentation, let me know.

[Curandil]

> People who know Java
I'm currently building 100% Java based Point-Of-Sale systems for a living. I have been doing Java and web based development since about 1996.

>People with experience with documentation
Not my most favorite task but I have written Technical documents. The target audience for the technical documents have always been other developers usually the ones that have to make use of our subsystems.

>People who have programmed plugins for popular IDEs (Eclipse, Netbeans, IntelliJ)
I have not done a plugin yet in any of the IDEs but I have used and worked with Eclipse and IntelliJ. I've used Netbeans but only to bootstrap the FRC code so I could port it over into an Eclipse project. I'm also fluent in Emacs and Vi.

>People who who C++
I have over 10 years experience developing C/C++ applications in a large scale Telecommunications environment as well as Scientific applications.

I'd be willing to lend support wherever you might need it. I might even be able to get some of our Programming team to help out as well. Feel free to private message me.

Good luck,

Curandil
Team 4279 - Robo Revolution
Mentor - Programming Group

[tragic]

Is there still room for a C++ coder? I would be willing to commit some of my time to helping out as I think replacing WPI.lib with something more streamlined could be a big improvement for First. I also think I may have some idea's that could help to improve or expand the project.

[connor.worley]

I can help out with the C++ effort if there's still a need.

[joelg236]

I'd love if someone could pickup a C++ effort for porting. I'm not familiar with C++ enough to do it.

https://github.com/Team4334/atalibj

Code is all here. You could fork it and slowly replace files or just make your own repo with C++ versions. Once it has a decent amount of stuff, I can merge it into a new branch.

[tragic]

Ill look into learning some of the Java keywords to read the source(its similar to C/C++ so shouldn't take long) and I will begin recreating the files in C++.

[joelg236]

Ill look into learning some of the Java keywords to read the source(its similar to C/C++ so shouldn't take long) and I will begin recreating the files in C++.

Awesome. Let me know if you need help.

[Domenic Rodriguez]

Having just ported our 2013 code from C++ to Java, I am familiar with both languages. If you would like some additional help with the C++ port of ATALibJ, I may be able to contribute.

[joelg236]

Having just ported our 2013 code from C++ to Java, I am familiar with both languages. If you would like some additional help with the C++ port of ATALibJ, I may be able to contribute.

Absolutely. Can you start by porting some code and putting it in a separate repository?

[Domenic Rodriguez]

I forked the project on GitHub, and started work on a C++ port here: https://github.com/DomenicP/atalibj/tree/cpp. Unfortunately I don't have access to WindRiver Workbench at the moment, so I'm unable to compile the code to make sure it's working. Might be a couple of weeks before I can obtain the install disks again, since my team doesn't meet in August.

[Domenic Rodriguez]

Update: After messing around with it for a while, I was able to get the C++11 toolchain (http://firstforge.wpi.edu/sf/projects/c--11_toochain) from FIRST Forge working on an Arch Linux VM. I'll be working with this until I can reinstall WindRiver; as far as I know the code should behave the same in both environments. I also started a separate repository found here: http://github.com/DomenicP/atalibcpp.

[Fletch1373]

I'm also (more-than) familiar with both Java and C++ and would love to jump in on this!

For the documentation, I highly recommend following JavaDoc syntax(or Doxygen for C++). This would make 90% of the documentation basically write itself.

[Domenic Rodriguez]

I'm also (more-than) familiar with both Java and C++ and would love to jump in on this!

If anyone else would like to get involved with the C++ porting effort, you can find the code here: https://github.com/Team4334/atalibcpp. I've ported a few of the base classes, but there is still a lot to do. It also still needs to be tested under Wind River Workbench.

[AubreyA]

I can help with the Java if you still want it. Just let me know where to start.

[joelg236]

I can help with the Java if you still want it. Just let me know where to start.

The library is already completed (well, basically). But I'd love it if you could take on IDE plugins.