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Unread 09-02-2010, 18:22
Greg McKaskle Greg McKaskle is offline
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Re: The increasing amount of pre-canned code

If this is about blank canvas versus paint by numbers, that is a deep discussion. If a good mentor is there to challenge, encourage, goad, and help explain why something just happened, then the blank canvas can certainly offer the richest and most fulfilling experience. The blank canvas approach seems to work less well without the awesome mentor and support network. Arguably, the systems approach, also works far better with the mentor to fill those roles. Also, if a team chooses to go blank canvas and uses kit materials and WPILib only for prototyping that seems to expose them to the full benefits of both approaches. Some teams simply don't have the time or resources to undergo the second phase.

If this discussion is about taking the contest back to year XX when things were just right for your taste, then why not really make it challenging and design your own limited challenge within your team or region for the offseason. You know the ones where you make a bridge from pasta, a boat from cardboard, or I don't know, how about autonomous robots without ICs of any kind -- tubes for all. No need to worry about spoiling them with SW libraries that way.

If you have specific feedback on WPILib, I'm sure Brad and the other contributors will be happy to get feedback or assistance.

Greg McKaskle
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