What Language To Use?

[Team 3705]

I really like Python, but I still think it needs work. We might just as well go with C++ again. But I will definitely try to test Python and see if it is something that we can use as an alternative.

[Mk.32]

Originally Posted by Team 3705

I really like Python, but I still think it needs work. We might just as well go with C++ again. But I will definitely try to test Python and see if it is something that we can use as an alternative.

What off season is for.
If you have enough programmers, you can even have 2 teams, one that codes in Python and one that does C++. And for competition use which ever works better.

[Team 3705]

Well, everyone in my team is a newbie to all this. We lost our program lead last year.

So its all up to me, and we are lacking members on some fields. I am really worried about the state of organisation in my team.

No one has done collaborative development before. Last year it was a one man job. This year I am trying to spread out the work, but everyone is really new to programming. Since we are a team in HS, most of these students are in Grade Nine. For some reason, we are lacking more senior students with knowledge, which I plan on changing.

Some of the things that I already started doing is auditing last year's code. But I have much more to do. Would love to see someone else's C++, or just general code.

[Tom Line]

If you do a search here on chief delphi, you'll find people have posted their competition code. Likewise, many beta teams posted their code at the end of beta last year, which would give you a good bit of code to look at. You can find the beta forums at www.usfirst.org.

[Tommy F.]

I'm just going to put this out there:

If your team is interested in learning LabVIEW, there are great guides to get you started and keep you going at http://www.frcmastery.com/.

[DonRotolo]

If you think your team may be "struggling with programming", then I suggest picking a language that has a lot of FRC support already available. While Python may be cool, you'll struggle with it far more than with LabView, for example.

The choice for our team was mainly dictated by what the mentors knew, and that was LabView.

Remember that no matter which language you choose, there is generally no task that can't be done. So it becomes a matter of what is easiest to master.

Don

[Duke461]

For more of a comparison between the languages, read this thread:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ing+langu age

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by 7h0m54

I'm just going to put this out there:

If your team is interested in learning LabVIEW, there are great guides to get you started and keep you going at http://www.frcmastery.com/.

+100

that is how I re-learned labview... that, and reverse-engineering the code for an old 2010 bot (and getting a better resultant code) worked out well.

for newcomers, labview would be my recommendation. but use whatever your team knows best.

[Team 3705]

Thanks for all of your guys opinion! We will definitely look into using C++ and maybe LabView.

I would prefer C++ though!

I hope python is an option out there though, but who knows. I will try to experiment when I have the time.

My team also has a bad design team. So there is definitely a problem there also.

Anyways, thanks for the reply! Will definitely look at the various code out there.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Team 3705

Thanks for all of your guys opinion! We will definitely look into using C++ and maybe LabView.

I would prefer C++ though!

I hope python is an option out there though, but who knows. I will try to experiment when I have the time.

My team also has a bad design team. So there is definitely a problem there also.

Anyways, thanks for the reply! Will definitely look at the various code out there.

RobotPy is python that 294 ported over, I know they used it successfully all season.

[Sconrad]

Originally Posted by Team 3705

Thanks for all of your guys opinion! We will definitely look into using C++ and maybe LabView.

I would prefer C++ though!

I hope python is an option out there though, but who knows. I will try to experiment when I have the time.

My team also has a bad design team. So there is definitely a problem there also.

Anyways, thanks for the reply! Will definitely look at the various code out there.

Just keep in mind what the new programmers are going to know. If your school has some sort of C++ or Java (AP Computer Science) class, then that language is probably best for you. I am a programmer for team 122 and we get a lot of kids in our programming group whose only experience with programming is some scripting language like html. Therefore, Labview works well for us. Because it is all visual, Labview is relatively easy to teach to kids who are new to programming. Another advantage to Labview: Every function you will ever need is in a right-click menu, so it is really easy to learn by without constant supervision, which can be a huge help if you are short on experienced programmers.

I would recommend the method of splitting into two groups if for no other reason than your team will have experience in two languages and will be able to help more teams at competition.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Sconrad

Just keep in mind what the new programmers are going to know. If your school has some sort of C++ or Java (AP Computer Science) class, then that language is probably best for you. I am a programmer for team 122 and we get a lot of kids in our programming group whose only experience with programming is some scripting language like html. Therefore, Labview works well for us. Because it is all visual, Labview is relatively easy to teach to kids who are new to programming. Another advantage to Labview: Every function you will ever need is in a right-click menu, so it is really easy to learn by without constant supervision, which can be a huge help if you are short on experienced programmers.

I would recommend the method of splitting into two groups if for no other reason than your team will have experience in two languages and will be able to help more teams at competition.

Not to be a jerk but HTML is a markup language NOT a scripting language. If they know a scripting language it is actually really useful as they already know the basics of programming (variables, flow, logic etc).

[Sconrad]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

Not to be a jerk but HTML is a markup language NOT a scripting language. If they know a scripting language it is actually really useful as they already know the basics of programming (variables, flow, logic etc).

You are right. HTML is not a scripting language. I meant markup manguage but the terms got jumbled up in my head (maybe humans do need more than 5 hours of sleep a day ) I have nothing against people who have programmed in any language, as taking up a language shows they are interested in programming and computers, which, IMHO, is more important than previous knowledge.

[JamesBrown]

Originally Posted by PRich1477

Look into getting a team Dropbox account, or something similar (if you haven't already). We use our Dropbox for everything. Our CAD is shared on there (CAD is very important to us since we use sheet metal), our code (with all previous versions, so we can revert if we mess up), as well as team pictures and videos for the marketing and Chairman's team.

Very good idea, however dropbox is not the best solution for software revision management. If you are programming in JAVA or C I strongly reccomend using SVN, this will allow you to commit changes, allow you to see who is working (or has worked) on what and you can always roll back to older versions. Both windRiver and NetBeans have plugins for SVN. I am not sure if LabVIEW supports svn but I do recall a thread discussing it a while back.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Team 3705

My team also has a bad design team.

Is the team bad, or just their designs, or both? Or is it a case where the design is great, but just for a different game? Or is it a reliability problem? Or...?

You can't fix everything in software, but some rational and logical suggestions might be able to turn bad into good. How can we help?