[tr6scott]

Sorry, forgot to mention. . .

Don't discount your existing programmers. Programming an FRC robot is a tricky thing, and it is really tough to be able to have multiple programmers working on code for different subsystems, all to coordinate and merge code into a whole project, without conflicts.

So your observation of "half-hearted" programmers, may just be that there wasn't much for them to do at that time. We have 3 strong programmers, and it can be a significant task to manage 3 people working on same program. We have found it typically not worth the added effort, and end up with only one person making code and changes at a time. For us this means we have one experienced programmer with a freshman looking over his/her shoulder, and 4 people not doing anything productive.

We worked this way for a couple of weeks, but with all the downtime, I tore the freshmen away and gave them a bot, and gave them programming challanges. I told them they could not ask a question unless they spent an hour being stuck, and researching the problem. The freshmen were happier, the experienced programmers were happier, and the freshmen will be ready to take on more advanced concepts next year.