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Unread 23-04-2008, 21:21
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Coach/Faculty Advisor
AKA: Greg King
FRC #1014 (Dublin Robotics aka "Bad Robots")
Team Role: Teacher
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Rookie Year: 1999
Location: Columbus, OH
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Re: Next Year's code

How different C is from C++ pretty much depends on how you write code. The big difference is that C++ has objects, which opens up a lot of programming options. On the other hand, you can write purely or almost purely procedural code in C++, that looks pretty much like C. Picking up the syntax differences (which are really additions) in C++ is pretty easy if you know C already. But programming in an object oriented manner is not that easy to just pick up if you haven't done it before. On the other hand, if you know Java and C then picking up C++ is pretty easy.

Now here is a plea from a computer science teacher to all the students out there. Give Lab View a try. Don't be seduced by the argument that since it is graphical it is somehow less worthy than C/C++. There are a lot of good programming practices that Lab View can teach you. First and foremost among these is testing modules of code. This makes debugging much easier and leads to better overall coding. (One of the things I love about Java as a teaching language is the ability to add a main method to each class in order to test it.)
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Thank you Bad Robots for giving me the chance to coach this team.
Rookie All-Star Award: 2003 Buckeye
Engineering Inspiration Award: 2004 Pittsburgh, 2014 Crossroads
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