Quote:
Originally Posted by Michelle Celio
I, for one, do not accept.
I'm going to try and compile my perspective, but odds of that happening successfully and everyone understanding my points is going to be slim to none.
But..
Let's say, you're a freshman on a rookie team, and have been put in charge of programming. You work hard all the six weeks to get your robot up and running. You get to the competition, with no hybrid mode because you either didn't have the resources to learn how to program it or you just plain and simple ran out of time.
So, you're at your first ever FIRST competition, and a semi-established team comes up to you "Hey, you don't have a hybrid mode? Here use this pre-built one!". So they load the code on to your robot, and explain to you what it does or how they wrote it.
How important do you think this code is to the freshman? Do you honestly think that this freshman is going to sit down between the end of this season and next builds-eason and learn how to program for another possible hybrid mode since what they know from a FIRST Competition is that the "harder" code will just be handed to them?
Yes, helping other teams get their robot working for hybrid mode, and explaining to them how the code was made is the "Gracious Professional" way to do things, but what message are we really sending to the freshman and rookie teams that have joined this year?
FIRST OVERDRIVE should not be about handing out hybrid modes to people who don't have them, it's supposed to be a challenge. If some teams can't beat the challenge than it's on them.
Just my $0.02
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Waynep's challenge did not suggest simply handing code to rookie teams. As he stated in his original post, the code will be explained to the less experienced programmer, allowing him or her to fully understand how the code works. I, along with Wayne and other FIRSTers, am sick and tired of seeing robots doing absolutely nothing during hybrid/auto mode.
If you had any experience with programming in FIRST, you would understand that programming the robot does not simply mean dumping some code in and having it work the first go around. Different wiring schemes, as well as other numerous, unpredictable factors, will prove to be somewhat of a challenge for the veterans trying to help the other teams. Such challenges will force the programmers from each team to work as a cohesive whole to develop the proper code for the individual team's robot. Besides, how is this any different than a team offering to lend support to another team in order to get its drive train working? That has an ever greater effect on the competition, and it is a practice that is widespread and well-accepted by the FIRST community. I have even helped out rookie teams with some simple coding errors. Again, how is that any different than helping the team have an effective hybrid mode? I see Waynep's challenge as a way to increase the support the rookies are getting at the regionals, and I see it as he is striving to channel that support into a specific part of the game, one that is extremely daunting to new teams/programmers.
I can testify that working as a rookie alongside a veteran, and having the more experienced programmer walk you through the code is an effective teaching method. As freshmen, Kristian and I worked alongside Bharat, mostly watching Bharat and allowing him to explain the code to us once he was able to have the robot working flawlessly. We grew from that point, reprogramming the robot(s) during the offseason and gaining an understanding of how to program on our own. Now, Bharat is more of a supervisor, letting us do the programming and lending his advice when called upon. The system that Wayne has proposed seems quite similar to such a method. I fully believe that, if teams accept the challenge, programming will reach new heights in FIRST.
Perhaps you should go reread the original post. It may help you to fully and accurately comprehend the challenge which Wayne has presented us.