Inexperienced Programmer

[JosephC]

This year we have 2 programmers, Me (a freshman) and Jimmy (a senior). Next year I'm going to be the sole programmer on our team and was wondering if anyone knows a good site or two to help me learn Java faster?

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Thinking in Java is a good free book. Head First Java isn't free, but more fun to read. That's just for learning basic Java though - read and practice. It's just as important to become VERY familiar with the FIRST/WPI libraries so you know what you can program.

This FAQ is questions beginners frequently ask along with links to more free resources:
http://www.coderanch.com/how-to/java/JavaBeginnersFaq

And some shameless advertising:
1) The Java and OOP assignments are good for practicing (they are free unless you want them reviewed)
http://www.javaranch.com/java-college.jsp
2) A cute game
http://www.javaranch.com/roundup.jsp
3) For all Java questions, the moderators of http://www.coderanch.com/forums/f-33/java are really friendly, nice and helpful.

[~Cory~]

I was in your position last year. I decided to do a "mini" build season with an old robot. I gave myself 6 weeks to program a crab drive robot from scratch. From their I learned some of my weaknesses and fixed them before this years build season.

I also strongly recommend doing a complete (with notes) read through of WPIlib documentation and examples. It will help you know what is there and the library in its entirety rather than the snippets you need and use.

Another recommendation is understand to a point that you could teach the following to a new student: (I hadn't) The cRIO and how it works, Controller Area Networks, PID loops, Traction Controll, I2C, TCP/IP, and traction controll. This is important because you will have to explain things to the mechanical sub teams if something doesnt work, or you need it a part of the robot physically changed.

My last and final recommendation is tell your team the position you are in. You need to make it known that you need AT LEAST A WEEK of debugging time with the robot. The robot was put together and I was left with three days to do all of the testing and autonomous.

[youxinche95]

http://codingbat.com/java

All you really need, created by the APCS professor at Stanford. Really helpful at writing snippets of code, all you really need for programming a robot. Remember, the more encapsulated and intuitive your code is, the better it is.