[Guopeter]

I was a programmer for two FRC seasons.

I know what you mean; at one point, I was hoping every team would have the programs built "from scratch", this way, my team would stand out (because of my "superior" programming). The GDC included these libraries and significantly elevated the level of competition.

Of course, some maturity comes with time. The way I look at it since then is that the "prepackaged" codes are there for you to "unpackage" and "re-package" with added components. Not only is this a great way for learning, but you always end up writing a better program that what was provided. Like what's mentioned above, the provided libraries challenge the programmer to be more creative. In this sense, good programmers can still make their team "to the next level" and feel very accomplished.

Although Labview has PID and Vision classes ready to go, I end up creating my own for both of them.

-Pie Man