Re: Do we have to program our robot in C++?
 

This sounds like a brilliant way to use last year's robot... :D

Re: Do we have to program our robot in C++?
 

It would make it more challenging for some teams, but some teams would eat this up and be even crazier then they were before. :ahh:

The bigger issue I see is the headache at events for FIRST. Right now, there is the same controller/radio setup on every robot. Even with everyone using the same RC setup, teams still botch it in many creative ways. :rolleyes: FIRST knows the current setup so they can help debug it when the match was suppost to start 2 minutes ago. If teams were allowed to use any controller, they wouldn't be able to help, and I think the number of teams having comms problems would increase with a decrease in the quality of help available.


Wetzel

Re: Do we have to program our robot in C++?
 

Is there a rule saying we can't use any type of controller? What if someone can modify an N64 controller and use that? Would that be against the rules?

Re: Do we have to program our robot in C++?
 

I think you've got joysticks and controllers mixed up.

Innovation First makes the control system that tells the robot to do stuff. Yes, you have to use it.

Joysticks (and anything else that connects to the operator interface, for that matter) have been functionally wide open. Go wild on that, if you prefer. And if you get an N64 controller to work with it, we want pictures. :D

(note, however, that everything is subject to change without notice or reason)

Re: Do we have to program our robot in C++?
 

The rules are subject to change.

Wetzel

Re: Stupid question that should be easy to answer...
 

If you know C, you know C. The only differences between programming a computer with C and programming a robot are the functions you call and the libraries you include.
There are a whole load of great pages out there for learning C.
A couple good ones:
http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/cclass/
http://www.cprogramming.com/
And, of coarse, here!
If you are like me thou, and prefer a book (I actually posted a thread about this a while ago), a very good one is "The C Programming Language" by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie. If you are totally new to programming, you may find it goes a little fast, but it is still a very good read.

Re: Stupid question that should be easy to answer...
 

Thanks for the links, but once I skimmed over the material, I saw that I already knew it from C++.

I was just wondering what the difference was between ANSI C and C that is used for Microsoft Visual Studio?

Re: Stupid question that should be easy to answer...
 

I have been using M$ VS for a about three days now (at the place I'm doing co-op at) and it looks to be pretty similar (there are small differences like wsprintf in M$ is sprintf in ANSI). Nothing a quick bit of googling cant fix.
If you already have some background in programming you shouldn't have much of a problem with the robot. The first time I ever touched C was a week before the competition, and I had no problem with the robot.