[efoote868]

I have about 4-5 years experience programming in java.


At the start of the build season, I gave our programming team 3 assignments related to the drive train (which, by the way, I'm considering writing a white paper on after the season).
I told them not to worry about the language / syntax, and to worry about the pseudo code and the algorithm.

After each task, I explained the "right" answer (one that worked anyhow). It gave me a chance to clarify the original assignment, and a chance for them to learn a little bit about how to go about solving these math problems.


After the 3 assignments, I told them to code it however they pleased.
Naturally, I coded mine in Java, and the programming team tried to do the same.
I had no experience with Labview, and so another mentor and I went to "port" my code to labview.
It took us 30 minutes to wire everything up, and then an hour to thoroughly debug everything.
It took the others the better part of the week.

It was nice too, because I had made some mistakes in my code (arctan(x) vs arcsin(x) vs arctan(x,y)), and we were able to spot them very quickly, graphically.


The robot ended up getting programmed in Java, because the high schoolers rule the robot. I've looked at their code, and I have to say I'd much rather it be in labview for maintainability reasons.

Labview for rapid development, easier debugging, and better maintainability.