[Marc P.]

I'd have started autonomous programming much much sooner (as in, right about this time, heh). We ended up pushing it off until we had a completed drive train (which didn't happen until week 4 or 5), and even then, didn't come up with a concrete autonomous plan until week 6. As it turned out, we wired the banner sensors in a rush, so they weren't getting the required power, and thus not working properly until the second day of our only regional (when we discovered the problem). Coding was a mess too, basically thrown together by one person, minimal to no commenting at best.

I think we can only blame our own lack of organization, especially since I was supposed to be the lead programmer. However, I've been programming in BASIC/PBASIC for so long it's infused in my blood, so I had a rough transition to C (having never done a thing in C prior to this year.. should have started practicing much much earlier). Luckily we had a new member, incredibly bright, picked up C in a week, and did 95% of the code. We ended up with only a few bugs, and not much of an autonomous, but it got us through a regional and nationals, and gave us a wealth of experience to draw on for next year. Biggest thing I'd do over- learn C long before the 6 weeks started. Needless to say, I have our edu-bot and will be playing for most of the summer.