[Mike Betts]

Mohamed,

While I very seldom disagree with Dana Henry, I have to side with Alan on the mentor experience issue. Most professional software engineers can change languages with ease. I have lost count on how many languages I have used (over 14) in my career. Also, most of us enjoy a challenge...

James Brown did a very good job of explaining things. However, I would emphasize the support in Labview. Most importantly, the fantastic video tutorials that Ben Zimmer has provided on FRCMastery.com. If your team is mentor poor or, for some other reason, you need the students to learn on their own, Labview is my top recommendation.

That being said, I will be pushing my team into Java this next year as it will better prepare them for AP testing and college.

Disclaimer: My comments above concern the existing choices... I have tried to keep an open mind about things but I still feel that FIRST did not do us any favors in the migration to an overly complex system to control a simple embedded system like a FRC robot.

JMHO,

Mike