Preparing for this year in programming is particularly difficult since with the exception of the Beta Test teams, no one has access to or experience with the FIRST Libraries/VIs. In the 04 change from PBASIC to C teams were given a special
EduBot controller to practice. Once the testing is done, we should all get the libraries and a cRIO (if pay for shipping) shortly before the season.
Until then at MOEU we have the students practicing with both LV and C++. For C++, we are using Eclipse with MinGW toolchain. I am thinking about making dummy classes to resemble the new WPILib and having the students practice with them. For classes methods that get an input I am thinking about reading from a file or calculating based on past output. Then just print out output methods.
MPLAB is not very useful IMHO now (and never was a great IDE). I recommend you:
- Download Eclipse for C/C++ since this year's IDE WindRiver Workbench uses an Eclipse plugin (from my understanding).
- Download MinGW if you use Windows so you can complile your programs. Both are open source free programs.
- Look through the WPILib Documentation to get a sense of how to use it.
- Also download free FIRST Labview 8.5.1 and get a feel for it