Chosing a Programming Language

[CLandrum3081]

This is from my experience. I am not a programmer for the team but have outside experience programming and am currently working with our programming mentor. Keep in mind this is a general overview and my experience is limited.

3081 has had a weird situation (a year or two out of our four previous years, I think) with programming in both LabView and C++ because our programmers weren't agreeing on which one to use. This year, we're switching completely to C++.

We don't use Java and haven't used it recently and I don't have experience with it.

LabView is easy to learn and use, but it can be limiting if you want to do something fairly complicated.

C++ is very hard to learn and master, but once it is mastered (or at least understood enough to use properly), you can do more with it.

All in all, if you're a beginner, use LabView. If you have some experience or a mentor that does, use C++. I'm new to C++ and while it's a great language, it's also a great headache.

Hope that helped somewhat.

Catherine

[Anupam Goli]

Honestly, there isn't a huge difference in the language you use.

When you get down to it, Computer Science and Software Design is the same regardless of the language you use. Of course, you can't jump into things right away, but for any student going into CS or ECE should know be well versed enough in Computer Science or Software Design to overlook the language and to know the concepts. Example: I only used Java in high school, but in the past semester, I've had to learn MATLAB, LabVIEW, and C for my courses as Computer Engineering major. It honestly was not a big deal at all, as the concepts were the same, just the way of writing it was different.

That being said, are your students well versed in computing or are they not?

If they are, then the language used isn't a big deal. The differences in processing speed and power are negligible. Documentation on all of the languages is pretty expansive.

If your students are new, starting them on something like Java (If you have mentors experienced with TEACHING computing concepts or if the school has a Computer Science class) or LabVIEW(very simple to pick up initially, though frustrating for veterans used to text-based coding) are recommended. Java is very very easy for any student to learn due to the thought process behind the Object Oriented programming setup in Java. LabVIEW uses a GUI and drag-and-drop interface. C++ is for people with knowledge, but once again, if the students understand the basic computing concepts, any programming language can be used to no detrimental effect.