[Hitchhiker 42]

I still stand with the LV crowd.

From the easy-to-use perspective, LabVIEW seems to be ahead: as mentioned above, the graphs allowed us to tune our PID controllers extremely quickly, and building the dashboard is also quick, as LV works well with graphic UIs.

Java is more applicable to the real world, and isn't that what FIRST is about? Inspiring and teaching kids to be successful in future STEM careers. However, at least for me, once I began starting to learn programming languages (I started with Python, then C++, LV, Java), each new language became very easy to learn. The thing is, it's not the syntax of a language that's hard to learn; it's the general structures of programming that take time to learn. The point is this: once you learn LV, you have set yourself up for success in learning any (or at least most) new programming languages.