[Tom Line]

Alan hit the nail on the head.

NOT having to teach the students this year all the tricks surrounding integer math and how to do it accurately was an improvement. Having code like the PID pre-written was an improvement (even though I made them write their own before allowing them to use it). Being able to do polynomial equations with doubles and floating point math rather than lookup tables was an improvement. Not spending a WEEK learning how to program fast trignometry estimates that are only useful on pics was an improvement. Having real-time debugging was an improvement. Having the Front Panel feedback and controls for tuning PID loops and other robot constants without having to do the old recompile-download-test and try again (or build you own custom tuning board with analog controls) was an improvement.

Here's the biggest difference. The CRIO DRASTICALLY lowered the bar for entry into FRC. Sure - the "old" teams like 111, 45, or anyone else with more than 3 or 4 years of PIC programming don't see a huge improvement. They know the tricks. They have the code pre-written. They don't have to spend a week just to learn how to do some basic function on the IFI that is built into the CRIO - like PID, trig, and floating point.

Finally, although I haven't seen anyone talk about it much, my team has universally agreed (even though they are experienced C programmers) that picking up the visual programming style of labview is quicker than learning to program a language if you've never dealt with languages much before.

The first year we were in FRC was '06. The learning curve on the IFI controller was huge. They were lucky to get their shooter running. '07 was very difficult as well - learning all these tricks, gyros, encoders.... basically learning how to make the system WORK was the first challenge. How many teams did you see using working gyros and encoders before Kevin Watson put out his code? And for some reason it still never made it's way into the IFI default release.

The Crio moves that challenge. I don't think the challenge with the Crio is getting the system to work. All those functions are built in and easy as drag-and-drop. Now the challenge is to how to beat the game.