I would also like to welcome you to the FIRST community. It's always great to have another software person in the mix. In addition to the excellent ideas posted, here (read and re-read Zuelu562's personal advice!) I'd like to suggest, that you take a look at the Robot Builder application that Brad Miller (WPI) made available for the C++ and java communities in 2013. We used it to develop the basic program structure for last year's robot, and then proceeded to make our own tweaks to hash out some dirty details. It definitely helped us get prototyping quickly, with our group of students. I am looking forward to an even better release this year.
Robot Builder:
youtube vid
Issues with last year's release:
More Commentary about last year's release: (the last post is a quite a slam, with which I can commiserate, yet I see it from a different point of view. We have been using tools like robot builder - albeit more sophisticated - in the gas turbine world for over 25 years)
Some Pros 'n Cons
Thanks,
Eric
PS: the CD search function is your friend! Use it early, Use it often
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