Quote:
Originally Posted by Elliot Swart
That's what I am trying to do. I just plan to let the poll sit for a couple of days, and if the % in favor of releaseing seems impressive enough, I'll write to FIRST asking them to release the information.
p.s. The public forum has very little information
I think one problem with the beta test are the group applications. Essentially, teams that applied together are getting access to all the information and code, even though they only have 1 compactRIO. Many more teams than the 18 beta testers have access to the code. Why shouldn't every team.
It is notable that many of the disenters are either from Beta Teams or in the beta testing groups. Your teams obviously feel themselves prepared to deal with the perils of beta code and information, why do you want to deprive that right from others.
While I think many people in the beta teams disagree with me about the release of information, please remember that FIRST is a competition, and they are being given an advantage. Thier programming and electronics people will be much better prepared at the start of the competition than the rest of the teams. While I don't resent them for being accepted into the beta tests, and I understand this test is necessary, as part of the FIRST community and pillars of the FIRST competition, they should be using thier influence to level the playing field, not fight against it.
When a beta tester says that he doesn't think the other teams are ready to see what his team is allowed to, he either being condesending, or trying to retain his teams competative advantage.
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This is a bit of a self-fulfulling prophecy. Of COURSE teams are going to want that code. The question here is, will Ni and FIRST be able to support it. The obvious answer is, not a chance. 2000 teams, a couple of controls guys on each team, could very well amount to a couple hundred questions a day, all directed at a small support team.
Having the 18 teams trying them out gives Ni and FIRST not only time to fix the bugs, but also time to write up instructions that answer all the easily answered questions that teams are sure to ask.
As much as I want this control ssytem, I've been through rollouts like this before in other applications, and I've been on the support side. Once the support guys start getting overwhelmed, the quality of their support drops exponentially.
Finally, by picking those 18 teams, they're also training THEM to be able to answer questions to! That by itself is probably tripling the number of knowledgable question-answerers that will be available.
First has already stated they are trying to get everyone who wants them control systems in very early december. I feel that's more than enough time (one month) to get up to speed on the system before kick-off.