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Re: Chosing a Programming Language
If you're a starting team with no programming experience whatsoever, LabView is the best choice because of the comprehensive documentation available.
If you have students with some programming experience, Java might be more useful. Most computer programming classes in high schools teach in Java. It's a bit more flexible than LabView, it's easier to write very complex programs, and once the students leave FIRST Java and C++ will both be more useful later on than Labview would be.
If you have a team with a lot of time and resources, C++ is worth a shot, though I don't necessarily think in the context of FRC that C++ is necessary. C++ is the "fastest" of the three, but the cRIO (and definitely the cRIO II) is fast enough to handle any language without problems. Any vision processing should be handled on the driver station, so that shouldn't even be an issue. C++ is harder to debug than Java, and Windriver is a ... well ... pos. Overall it's much easier to produce working code in Java. But it does have a few advantages that might make up for it if your team has the ability to debug all the issues.
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Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing.
- Wernher von Braun Attending: Raleigh NC Regional
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