In the 4 years I was in first, I never appreciated the work the programmers did.
But now that I am a computer science major and taking intro to java, I now understand that there is both some skill to it and that there is an unwritten code of conduct to it.
So my question is...
should FIRST have teams submit a printed copy of their
initial code to be judged (the code they shipped the robot with).
The criteria for this award would be
style:
did they use comments, did the separate functions with spaces, did they name their variables in a way that describes their function well. overall, is it easy for another programmer to tell what the various parts of the code does, and be able to easily fix any prolems in the code.
Function:
This category basicly covers what the code does. does it work, does it work well, are there any errors such as overflow and underflow, ect.
Creativity:
this would basicly be brownie points for thinking outside of the box. did you find a unique solution to the problem, ect.
The purpose of this award would be to prepare the students for their future. most college professors (including mine) leave a quarter of your program's grade for the style category. The style category also encourages programmers to gain habits that make debugging MUCH easier. Overall, this award would help prepare the future programmers for what the world expects. And in my opinion FIRST is the best organization to start doing this.
So if you think that FIRST should include this award in future years. Vote yes in the poll.