[Ari423]

Originally Posted by artK

Yes, new software is supposed to be written each year. The real question is what new software needs to be written. A number of teams, from my general impression, will start essentially from scratch each year. I believe this may contribute to the problem. Since most teams don't/can't reuse the code from the previous year, they have to start from what they know, and usually without help. It's like asking a designer to CAD up a drivebase who doesn't necessarily know what goes into a drivebase. Yeah, it might work, but it's probably really heavy, slow, and doesn't turn well.

THANK YOU!!! On my team, we generally re-write the code each year, but we model it off of previous year's code. This allows us to use parts of the code that worked and find better ways to do things that didn't. Once they learn how to program, all of our programmers have access to view the robot code so they can learn good practices from it and become a better programmer before they take on the role of head programmer.

I think I'll make an off season "competition" of a code standard challenge from the team's code this year. I'll begin working on the details tomorrow with a friend and anyone else who is interested.

I would definitely be interested in doing this. Either have contestants interpret what already made code does (and maybe optimize it) or give them a task and have them make code to make it work. Only problem will be different programming languages. I have some "interesting" to read through code that might be a fun challenge without comments for this competition.

4 years. Every 4 years, there is a complete turnover. (I intentionally exclude mentors from this.) Given that many teams have limited programmers in the first place (and, given some of those threads, it's tough to get a programmer to step up to replace a lone programmer who is moving on), there isn't really a good progression... so even if you do get a programmer or two who are starting to force the team towards high quality, or do more complex things, right about the time they hit that point they're gone, and someone else is starting from near-zero.

As long as you have at least one year of cross-over to teach the new programmer, we have always been fine. When I joined the team, the head (and only) programmer was a senior, and he spend most of his time working on the robot, while I spent most of my time learning how to program. He only actually taught me how to program the robot in two hours after the end of the season. Sure, I wasn't as good my first year as head programmer as I am now, but I was still able to make neat, efficient code that works. So either every programmer on my team who has been in this situation is a genius, or other people can do it too.

Again, I cannot stress enough how much it helps to have a version of code finished before the robot is built. Sure you might not be able to test most of it, but you can test that state machine that would take you hours to make and test while you have better things to be doing. Having code done beforehand allows you to make more advanced code.