Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

By Name:
If you go by game name, I agree with Justin that the 4 letter abbreviations seem neater/easier to look at. I'd also recommend standardizing 2 letters for the first main word in the name and 2 for the last. (Granted, there aren't always two words, but usually.) You do this for some, but others are a 3-1 split. Personally I find 2-2 easier to decode. For instance, to me:
BKWY is simpler than BRKW
RKRL simpler than RCKL
DBTB than DBLT
LDLG than LDDR
TRTR than TRDT
HXHV than HXGN
RMRL than RMPR
etc

It also seems that the first letter in each set is the first letter of the word, while the second tends to be the first letter of the last syllable (when applicable). For instance, Dou-ble Trou-ble. Just a semi-constant observation; don't know whether you'd want to actually use it.

I wasn't around in 2004, did people refer to it as "FIRST Frenzy" or "Raising the Bar" more often? I've heard both, just curious.


By Year:
If you do want to sort by (Competition)(Year), I suggest defining "year" as when the worldwide championship/event takes place. This makes the system universal, since they're--conveniently (or not)--all on the same weekend.

Of course, this doesn't fix the FLL team number issue. I'd recommend staying away from team nickname on that, if our FLL & VEX programs are any indication. By schools could work. Granted, our FLL teams shift schools, but then you're left with the (more philosophical) question "what actually defines a team?". Best stay away from that in this instance. ;)


just my $0.02 (nominal)

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

Either the set of 4 letters or 5 will work. I think that we can interpret both.

Greg, thanks for doing this. When can we expect version 4 to appear?

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

I like pretty much all of the four letter combinations, but I would rather use years. For example, a lot of people know of the 2001 game, but not its name. If expansion to other areas of FIRST was desired, /tbatv/frc/team/2791/2009/ would be easier in my opinion.

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

I realize I'm a week late and something may have already been decided. But if not, here's my two cents:
I prefer using the competition/year format because it is simple and understandable to everyone. For someone who is new to FIRST and never saw or heard about Hexagon Havoc, "FRC96" makes immediate sense, but HXGN is undecipherable gibberish. I assume you're going to document it either way, so it will ultimately make little difference. Nonetheless, codes I can read and write off the top of my head are better than codes I have to look up. It also saves you the trouble of making up a new code each year. ;)

For what it's worth, I would year-stamp games based on when they're released. The FLL website refers to Body Forward as the 2010 game, as do most teams.

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

I suppose if a competition ever released two games in one year we could have XYZ2012 and XYZ2012B. One key thing that I want to distinguish is teams from games. FRC177 is a team, clearly, but is FRC2010 a game or a team?

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

FRC177: Team
2010FRC: Game

:D

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

Or FRCG(ame)XXXX

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

What about allowing numbers into the codes? FIRST has a habit of naming their games with some sort of numerical denoation (e.g. the FRC's below and then Quad Quandery in '07). Suggested changes in bold.

BKWY - 2010 Breakaway
LNCY - 2009 Lunacy
ODRV - 2008 FIRST Overdrive
RKRL - 2007 Rack 'n' Roll
AMHI - 2006 Aim High
3PLA- 2005 Triple Play
1FRZ- 2004 FIRST Frenzy: Raising the Bar
STCK - 2003 Stack Attack
ZNZL - 2002 Zone Zeal
DBDY - 2001 Diabolical Dynamics
COOP - 2000 Co-Opertition FIRST
2TRB - 1999 Double Trouble
LDDR - 1998 Ladder Logic
TRDT - 1997 Toroid Terror
HXGN - 1996 Hexagon Havoc
RMPR - 1995 Ramp n' Roll
TPWR-1994 Tower Power
RGRG - 1993 Rug Rage
MAIZ - 1992 Maize Craze

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

Codes are good for people, years are less ambiguous though, so I might include both. I would list them in a more top-down fashion like this:

fll_2010_xxxx
fll_2009_xxxx
fll_2008_xxxx
...

frc_2010_bkwy
frc_2009_lncy
frc_2008_ovrd
...

ftc_2010_xxxx
ftc_2009_xxxx
ftc_2008_xxxx
...

This way if lists are compiled alphabetically they will be sorted out by competition (FTC, FLL, FRC), then by year, then a short code to remind the user what they're actually looking at.

Team numbers would be zero-filled with a "t" proceeding the team number, i.e. _t00095 or _t03333, to enhance sorting and to make it human-readable and intuitive. Underscores are great for human readability of these designations and would be clear characters to use for to facilitate parsing out names in code, skip all-caps for readability reasons, and zero-fill any numbers.

I could imagine typing in something like: frc_2010_bkwy_cxxx(competition code)_m078 to get information about match 78 in a particular competition. Alternatively: frc_2010_bkwy_t00095_cxxx(competition code) to get information about team 95 in 2010 at a particular competition.

Check out how US Digital does their part numbers, the part number contains all of the important information of a particular encoder and options very precisely. When I order a part from them with a very specific combination of options I need only give them a part number.

Just my $0.02

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

Using numbers to distinguish the year instead of abreveations is best for people that are not inside FIRST to recognize. For new people to the "sport" of FIRST, it is easier to distinguish by year.

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

Here's what I'm going with:

Thanks everyone for their input! :)

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

Not to burst anyone's bubble too hard but isn't that the worst of both worlds? You now have to remember BOTH the year AND the shorthand for the game in order to make URLs manually.

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

I agree with this. If it's desirable to support both, they should be separate and aliases for each other.

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

I'm not anticipating these being used in URLs. These are basically only going to be used to know how to format the page for any given Match.

What situations do you think we might end up using these in URLs? This is definitely not set in stone.

Re: FRC Game Name Shorthand
 

I thought this was a replacement for the current year in a team or match URL. i.e. /177/2009/ changes to /177/frc_2009_lncy . My mistake.