Quote:
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Originally Posted by Foster
I'm a big fan of Robo-Cobol and think that most teams should moving that way.
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Hey! That's
my line!
It's true that learning other languages is useful, like when the mother cat and her kittens were suddenly confronted by a dog. Mother cat barks furiously and the dog runs away. "See?" the mother cat says to her kittens. "Now you see why is important to learn a foreign language!"
I agree with
rsisk, that learning multiple languages helps teach programming structure and method. LISP and FORTH, for example, have a very logical format. (APL too, for that matter.) Maybe not as readable, but it makes sense. Robo-COBOL, on the other hand, is very readable, but oh-my! The typing! The
typing!
Our team used LabVIEW ever since it was introduced. The school district's FLL and FTC teams are already using LabVIEW, and we're starting to see those kids coming up to FRC already knowing how to do the basics. We (the mentors) would prefer sticking to the one language "just in case". What if your lead programmer can't make it to a competition? Can your relief pitcher pick up the language real quick? I don't mind exploring/learning other languages off-season, but let's keep everyone focused on one language -- whatever it is -- during build season.