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Unread 22-01-2012, 13:22
mikegrundvig mikegrundvig is offline
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FRC #2410 (Metal Mustangs)
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Re: What are you programming in?

We use C++ because one of the students a few years ago liked it and so we became a C++ team and have been ever since. The problem is that while the students believe they know C++, they are at best only passingly familiar with even the most basic aspects of it - mostly just cut and paste from the cookbook and examples. Even the smallest error in compiling can become a huge chore to debug.

This year's competition requires a far more sophisticated programming solution than anything our team has ever done. I believe that their assumption that they know the language well enough for this years competition is rapidly becoming our biggest hurdle. I have serious concerns about the ability of the team to code the full project. I wouldn't be surprised if we end up with a robot capable of far more mechanically than they are able to code.

C++ is amazingly powerful but the problem is that for accessing the WPI library it just adds a lot of hurdles and minimal benefits in this project. In my opinion, I feel C++ is significantly more of a pain than simple Java classes for what we are doing. For instance, the use of header files, compiler directives, macros, etc. are all common in C++ and can be avoided or don't exist in a language like Java. This increase in complexity isn't giving us more power on this project as we don't need it, it's just sapping time since none of the students really know the language.

I don't want to get into a C++ vs. Java argument at all. It's just that Java is simpler as it was designed specifically to reduce many of the complexities of C++ and baring a compelling need for the power of C++, I think we should have gone with it. Even LabView would likely have been a solid choice for what we are doing on the cRIO.

-Mike