Re: Where to go from here?
 

cprogramming.com (or is it .net?) is great. i learnedmost of my C there, and it's full of examples. the new control, of it's not from IFI, will really even the playing field, IMO. since the control system has been relatively the same since 04 (or 05, i forget), programming knowledge is built upon. now, this is a good thing for the veteran teams, but not so good for rookie or inexperienced teams. i remember last year, our programmer had to basically learn the RC from scratch in the 6 weeks. he did it, but it was much better this year with a programmer who already knew somewhat of how the RC works. next year, unless the system is remarkably similar, even veteran teams will have to re-learn how to control the robot.

Re: Where to go from here?
 

I always found that I learned best when I had a goal, either contrived or concrete, to work towards.

To that end, most of my C++ learning took place when I worked fairly hard to do topcoder problems. I did each of the weekly competitions, and that helped me to get a grip on the basic data structures and algorithms that the language offers. You could set a goal of solving an easy (Div II 250pt), medium (Div II 500pt), hard (Div II 1000pt), or insane (Div I 1000pt) problem every day, and by the end of a month you'll be shocked at how much better you are. It'll teach you all the various approaches to an algorithm (divide and conquer, dynamic programming, greedy, etc), it'll teach you basic data structures, and you can always view the winner's code to see how they do it. If you don't want to get locked into a particular language, you could cycle languages by day. On Monday, do Java. Tuesday, do VB. Wednesday, do C++, and so on. If you get even somewhat good at it, you can win nontrivial amounts of money. I think I've won about $80, though since I didn't have an affadavit as to who I am, I haven't been able to collect. The people at the top of the rankings have won on the order of tens of thousands of dollars.

Here's the site: http://www.topcoder.com/tc.

Other goals:
-A 3D simulation of driving various robot drivetrains (mechanum, swerve, 6WD, linkage) for future driver training. Make sure the 'level' is modular so you can switch in future game maps. Have the camera point locked to the driver station, and don't forget to implement phenomena like the lane divider blocking your sight.
-Take your existing robot base and teach it to do things. Was there something you couldn't accomplish this year like knocking off both balls in hybrid? Adjust the code so it drives a path like 1114's autonomous.
-Tweak your existing drive code to maximize the number of laps you can do, or to minimize lap time, or to minimize VARIABILITY in lap time. It's one thing if your driver can hit a certain time 1 in 10 tries, but if you can get him to hit it 9 in 10 times, that's something special. Drive code should be easy to use, not something that only one person has a good 'feel' for.
-Write a RC-independent framework for programming in order to maximize portability of your code for the switch next year.

Re: Where to go from here?
 

I bought the diecimila, and bought shields and other stuff for it from sparkfun.com