Re: Mentors will not let us use language the team wants.
 

My $0.02 as a rookie mentor: The students from the previous year are experienced in LabVIEW since it was used in previous bots, so even though I didn't know LabVIEW, I learned (and am still learning) and am supporting the students in their coding the bot in LabVIEW rather than insisting that they program in Java or C++ (which are both languages that I already know). I have not done any of the code for the bot, nor am I planning to; I believe my job as a programming mentor is to keep the students focused and organized, to help them debug, and to help them communicate clearly with the rest of the team.

Re: Mentors will not let us use language the team wants.
 

On many (if not most) teams mentors have the final say. I understand that this can be very frustrating at times, but realize why the mentors may be making this call.

From where you are, you have two options. Either compete with the mentors or work together.

Personally mentors often have to choose what they can support, because their time is hogged by other things too. For example with my ADK I have chosen to explicitly support Java as it is what I can support with my time available

I do have teams who have referenced my code who are using Labview and C++, but I told them that they were essentially on their own as far as implementing it in the other languages.

Your mentors, who probably have years and years of programming experience over you, probably made this decision as it was what they could support best. So rather than them saying, go ahead and write it in labview but you'll be on your own, they said lets do it in java so we can utilize my expertise. And trust me that expertise is critical if you are going to try to have a successful autonomous.

What they are doing is risk management, and where it can be very frustrating at times, it is a critical element of design decisions.

It is unfortunate that it came in the top-down manner that it did. As I've always said, sometimes it is better to allow a team to fail than to enforce authority... and this can be the most difficult thing a mentor can do, but there are important lessons that are learned.

However, I think they are making this call in your team's best interest as they realize if the code fails, the robot fails EPICALLY, and competition debugging is probably the most difficult thing a programmer will face. Having a mentors expertise will help and may even save your robot should this happen.

Re: Mentors will not let us use language the team wants.
 

Too often I read that programmers feel they only need to know one way to code something; yet in the real world the reality is that if a programmer cannot adapt to the multitude of new languages and protocols, he/she will be come obsolete and out of a programming job within a few years. Typically this means odd consulting jobs for their language of specialty or movement into project management.

Consider this a lesson for both you and your mentors. You guys should learn Java. They should at least become more exposed to LabView. Which language do you choose for this season then? Whichever one gets the robot finished on time. The one that isn't used should be 'taught' during the offseason. I predict that if the mentors truly are that stubborn they will only use Java in future years; so it wouldn't hurt for the students to learn it now. Yet Alan is quite correct -- their argument for doing so (if they really worded it as the OP has worded it...) is quite weak.