Which language should we program in

[Jim Zondag]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

The conventional wisdom is to go with what your mentors know. I'm not going to contradict that, but I will say it's not strictly necessary. When the TechnoKats decided to use LabVIEW, the decision was made based on ease of learning and the level of support available rather than the level of comfort of the programming mentor (me). It was a learning experience for everyone, and I'm glad we did it.

Ditto: I chose Labview initially for these same reasons:

1. Labview is easier to teach. FIRST is an educational program, it is not just about building robots, it is also learning the processes and methods along the way. I chose Labveiw largerly because I find it easier to teach to new students with little experience and easier to do design reviews with non-coders, students and adults alike. If I were building robots by myself, alone in my basement, I would certainly write in C++, but since I work with a team of students and non-software people, it is more about the team than about me and what I like.

2. Labview has excellent support. The NI community is quite helpful and supportive of Labview for FRC, and there is a large local LV users community. I worked with them a lot back in 2009 during the control system migration. I helped many teams in this time period and since and NI was very helpful in resolving many issues quickly.

Third is the fact that, in the future, most of the world of software engineering will move to graphical methods. In my world, in automotive electronics, almost all of the software we 'write' is in graphical languages: Simulink, Stateflow, Statemate, Altia, etc. If we want to prepare these kids fo the future, we should pick our methods according to what they are likely to need someday.

You can achieve good results with any of the languages avialable. You will learn a lot no matter which path you choose.