NEW TO PYTHON

[FrankenmuthK]

New programmer to python... Looking for tips, instructions on how to program for FRC, and anything else I need! Thanks

Steagles 5215

[TimTheGreat]

Welcome. You have made a great choice in switching to python.

http://robotpy.readthedocs.org/en/la...ide/index.html

This is documentation for wpilib, python style. Most of what you are looking for is in here. For choosing a 'method' of robot programming, iterative is pretty straightforward, and if you are up to it go with sample robot. Stay away from command though.

If you have any more questions, just ask. Robotpy (the libraries for FRC python) has a freenode channel, http://webchat.freenode.net/ #robotpy and 1418 programmers are generally on, and we're always glad to help.

[Techwiz]

Originally Posted by TimTheGreat

Stay away from command though.

Why do you recommend that to stay away from command based?

[TimTheGreat]

Originally Posted by Techwiz

Why do you recommend that to stay away from command based?

Even though FIRST recommends using Iterative or Command Based, command based is generally found to be harder, but more so that Iterative/Sample are just so easy in python. There's also more support for them (forum wise).

[FrankenmuthK]

Originally Posted by Techwiz

Why do you recommend that to stay away from command based?

What would you suggest for a new python programmer?

[x86_4819]

Now i'm curious, did you see my team's display about python at the Great Lakes Bay Reigon Competition?

If you have never programmed in python before, you might want to start by learning the basics of the language before diving into programming FRC robots. I have found that codeacademy.com has a pretty good primer for learning basic python.

[TimTheGreat]

Dustin Spicuzza (virtualD) has also created a python learning package called pybasictraining. You can find it in Team 1418's github, https://github.com/frc1418/pybasictraining.

[FrankenmuthK]

Originally Posted by x86_4819

Now i'm curious, did you see my team's display about python at the Great Lakes Bay Reigon Competition?

If you have never programmed in python before, you might want to start by learning the basics of the language before diving into programming FRC robots. I have found that codeacademy.com has a pretty good primer for learning basic python.

I did not see it

[TimTheGreat]

Originally Posted by FrankenmuthK

What would you suggest for a new python programmer?

Well... that's tough. Because python is so versatile, the only real difference between iterative and sample is that in sample you create your own loops. This can, however, be hard. So I think your safest route would be iterative. It is very easy to understand and you get the same capabilities as sample robot.

[Fauge7]

Command based is made for more object orientedness. If you really want to do those the simplest way would be to use java/c++. Stick to iterative though because you seem many teams trying to do their own stuff in simple and it ends up not being simple. Python is still a great language for frc and i hope to see it more developed.

[Techwiz]

This year we used Java and command based. For the most part we love how command based allows us to have the appearance of doing multiple things at the same time. A couple of the student members have got a pretty good handle on how to write command based code.

As the programming mentor I find java to be very verbose. We find eclipse to be very cumbersome and heavy. I severely miss the days of netbeans. We were thinking about trying python with JetBrains pyCharm.

@x86_4819

Now i'm curious, did you see my team's display about python at the Great Lakes Bay Reigon Competition?

I did not see you display. Is there photos of it anywhere? My team is from Maine so we haven't quite traveled that far.

[TimTheGreat]

Originally Posted by Techwiz

We find eclipse to be very...heavy.

Why do you find it heavy? Is there something wrong with earth's gravitational pull where you live?

[tcjinaz]

Originally Posted by TimTheGreat

Why do you find it heavy? Is there something wrong with earth's gravitational pull where you live?

It's a resource hog, therefore it places a heavy load on its host, so it makes the world seem like gravity is exceeding 1G

At work, we can pile more Emacs users on a VNC server than Eclipse users.

[Fauge7]

For python you should not use eclipse and probably use some other ide. It is a resource hog but if you have a computer made in the last 3-4 years your should be able to use it. Don't use a classmate to run eclipse and you should be fine.

[Aero]

Originally Posted by Fauge7

For python you should not use eclipse...

I disagree. If you're familiar with Eclipse, it's not a terrible Python IDE, and familiarity will make your development much easier. If you've never used Eclipse or any other Python-supporting IDE, I'd recommend JetBrains' PyCharm. They'll also give you full educational licenses of all their software if you email em and ask!