2006 game hints?

[chady015]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

As great as hard core command line programming is, it is not for everyone. If you can understand it - you have a major advantage. But not everyone can easily understand that stuff. That is why most modern computers use use a GUI instead of command line to access programs. Apple realized that in the 1980s, that in order for computers to be bought by the masses, they had to be easy to use. They figured that ordinary people didn't care if their OS took up more memory space. Sure, the GUI isn't as powerful or as efficient as command line can be, but the GUI's are more user friendly - which means more people can use them.

Another reason why a GUI-based application for programming the FRC robots is greatly needed is that everyone learns and comprehends things differently. Some people can be geniuses, but if you lectured them all day, they wouldn't remember a thing. Other people need to be able to "see" things to comprehend them. I have to be able to "see" things to comprehend them, which is why I am great at the mechanical end of things, because I can "see" all the parts in my head and "see" how they move and interact. EasyC for Vex comes very easy to me, because I can look at the icons and "see" exactly what it does.

Right now, lets consider everyone's robot. How many this year had noteworthy autonomous programs? Not a whole lot, which is why GUI-based software for programming robots is such a great idea. This helps to balance the playing field. Now, even though it may not be as powerful, the average sophistication of the programming will dramatically increase, because now a wider variety of people can use this software.

Because of all this, for the 2006 game - expect to see a harder, longer, and more sophisticated autonomous mode with multiple tasks of varying difficulty levels.

Hi
I am a post graduate student involved with eLabtronics, the people who designed CoreChart.

Until I started programming in CoreChart I founnd it difficult to start programming in text assembler or C. CoreChart has enabled to me to pick up porgramming PICs in a short time. Most important of all CoreChart is an ACTUAL GRAPHICAL ASSEMBLER and not just a high level interface. Every one Icon is an instruction in the PIC assembler and hence CoreChart is used by professional engineers for complex real time applications! They use CoreChart to reduce prototyping time.

In Singapore High School students 14, 15 years are learning to use CoreChart for robotics competition based on the IFI EDU-Mini controllers. They then go onto dogin CoreChart PIC industry projects in Video Surveillance monitoring or home automation etc mentored by college students and industry experts. They are developing Smart kids in Singapore using CoreChart as what these 14 years old learn is actually pure assembler!


Good luck.
David