Quote:
Originally Posted by Gary Dillard
So 2 years ago, when I discovered that we had zero programmers on my new team, I went through the EasyC tutorial in about an hour, and about 2 hours later I had all the code written to drive and operate the robot. I loved EasyC because it allowed me to teach programming logic (which I understand) to the students (who had never been exposed to it) without stumbling through syntax of a new language.
I have never used Labview, but I quickly glanced at some of the online tutorials and it appears to be kinda sorta like EasyC as far as drag and drop is concerned. Can I expect to figure it out in a couple of hours and teach my new students logic in the same way, or should I start taking my C++ books to bed with me at night and put Mike Walker's cell phone on speed dial?
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I think you'll find that LabVIEW is somewhere in between EasyC and a real text based language in the way you want to use it. One of the great parts of EasyC was the WPILib, which abstracted many things, making them simpler. That level of abstraction is built into both the LabVIEW and C++ libraries this year.
Unlike EasyC, LabVIEW is a real programming language (technically, G is the language). That means that there is syntax to know, it just looks different. Instead of complaining that you missed a semicolon, it will complain that you missed a wire. LabVIEW generally has good error messages too, which helps. I never used EasyC, though, so I can't make a real direct comparison.
If you haven't already, you should check out the video tutorials the NI has been posting on their
FIRST Community. The
Joystick Motor Control in 10 Minutes Tutorial should give you an idea of the minimum needed, and some of the other ones will demonstrate things more advanced.
No matter what route you choose, it's always a good idea to keep Mike Walker's cell phone on speed dial.