Hey guys count me in on the meeting. I will be glad to go and talk to some of the other programmers out there. On the part of drivers blaming programmmers, I have a problem. I am programmer and a driver ,so when something goes wrong i have to end up blaming myself or the other programmer.He gets maf when everyone blames him so now if the robot does something it isn't supposed to i get blamed. That gets kinda crazy after a while. Well i hope we all get to meet up and have a meeting. See everyone at Nats.

Cody, Team 538 "The Dragonslayers"

well, when something breaks, then you go and blame te mechanic. i'm a programmer/driver, and when i have problems, i first say, oh, it was the breakers, then we find out like, a chain fell off of the left side, so i had no power on the left side of the robot. then everyone who yelled at me are like, um, uh, yeah, sorry. then they fix it, and by then, time to go out again.

just remember, figure out what failed, then pick whoever did that part, blame them. :D works most of the time. then, you go and redo the code so it doens't happen again.

Joy
 

We may need several tables for this, with this type of response. FIRST one to program a wooden picnic to hold 18 people wins 2 of those chip things. Hmm...That'll be a bit hard to optimize. Thank goodness for assembly. So if everyone can just send there bodies source, we can start the contest.

Alright... where is now the question
 

Here are a couple of more things:

The meeting will take place out at the picnic area behind Einstein (where everybody goes for food). Look for the person/people in drab kelly green shirts holding up signs for "CODEX" or "Programmers Conference", and look for the directional signs we'll be posting around the pits, directing you (hopefully) to the programmer's conference.

Remember: Wooden picnic tables, kelly green wearing people holding up signs, directional signs in the pits.

how will i ever remember!?! it's a whole week and two days until nats!! :p

I can't wait until tuesday at about 2:00 PM. that's when my school ends. then, i go home, pack, and goof off all night :D. then, at some ungodly hour, i go to a shoping center and get on a bus to the airport. sounds like fun. :p

might i inquire when this meeting will take place so that i can plan my time accordingly?

would someone like to fill me in on how the programmers meeting went?

i appologize for my team (#111) on account of us not attending. we unfortunately kept forgetting about it (the flyer helped out a lot though). The timing unfortunately being during lunch didnt help much. seeing as one of our software people was human player didnt help much because they (the head honchos) wouldnt let her stray very far (didnt really stop her though) so we waited for her to get lunch and by the time we got through the lunch lines after talking to people on other teams we were already too late. we would like to know what happened if anything and would also like to say that if someone wants to try for it next year my team will still be interested in coming.

ps hope everyone who went had a great time at nats

Details on the meetings
 

Unfortunately, I think the CODEX meetings were somewhat dulled by the fact that we had no organization, agenda, or idea as to what we were doing. If we manage to go to Nationals next year (3/5 points... need 2 more), I promise we'll be more organized :)

Thursday was fun, because we had a lot of people (around 20) that showed up. After around 2 minutes of waiting on people to show up (bad idea, it meant that we lost a lot of people that should've gone), we moved to the wooded area in front of the FIRST sign and before Epcot and had a group discussion of everything from the default program to ramp-up code. Unfortunately, I think some people got either overwhelmed or scared off, because not everyone came back Friday.

Friday, we waited for 15 minutes for people to arrive (only around 15 did, with some new people) and then moved back to the wooded area, and split up into two groups. The first group, led by Linda (from 422) went over the basics of programming for first-timers. The second group (my group) discussed some advanced coding, but we didn't have that much time. I had to leave early because we were the first match after lunch (and my team actually managed to queue without the OI... d'oh...), but not before Ashlee and I made a serious attempt to search for 111 programmers and Mike Soukup. We were all really curious to know how you pulled off crab drive code-wise :)

We also announced the new CODEX website - www.first-codex.net. The site will soon have the ability to submit articles, and the forums are up, so everyone should check it out and register with the forums soon. I hope you and the WildStang programmers, Chris, get together and write an article on how to pull of crab drive mechanically and in programming, as well as a description as to what it is :)

Yay!!! More forums for me to win awards on!!! :p

We'll have to have a "CODEX Web Hug" now too. :D Then, maybe I can get a Top 10 Poster on CODEX too! God, I need to get out more...

AHHHHHHH!
 

O MY GOD IAN! If that post didn't jynx us i don't know what did!

what are you talking about steve?

Confoosed..
 

Well, I know its late, but here I am, and I need help. Pretty much, I'm the only programmer for team 861 USC & Venice high School. I am more than a little confoosed here...
Firstly, I want to be able to access the legendary CODEX that the veteran programmers talk about... does it have a new home yet? If so, what is it? If it doesn't I will personally host it because I NEED it.
Also, the "PBasic Field Manual"- is it available on the internet? My team doesn't even have the big red manual, and I lack the resources to print the 200 page thing (not enough toner :( ). An abridged version that explained things pertinant to the competition would be like a Godsend.
Between school, building the robot (Yes, yes... a programmer doing manual labor, unthinkable) and still trying to keep an intact social life I didn't really have time to figure out the Default program, simple as it is. can anyone explain the MASTER uP init routine in the default program to me? Or even just the SERIN Command, that one has been bugging me too...
Thanks all!

CODEX has a home...
 

Visit http://www.first-codex.net

Some parts of the site are still under construction, but there's a bit of information there already.

CODEX and Field Manual
 

Noah, I feel your pain. The CODEX is back up at www.first-codex.net, like Nate said.

I think the Master uP initialization routine is one of those things FIRST marks as "Don't touch! Don't move!", so I've never dabbled in that.

As for the SERIN/SEROUT stuff, I think there's already an article up on the CODEX dealing with everything you need to know about that (Maybe the IO shuffle? I'll check for sure later). It should help you out. If not, email me, and I'll post another article dealing with it.

The PBasic Field Manual has fallen by the wayside a bit, because I'm entirely too busy to write in it right now. It will be posted on the CODEX within the next month or two, hopefully, and I'll send you a copy via email if you wish.