Reducing code build time

[virtuald]

Originally Posted by NWChen

Often our team makes small changes to code (e.g. adding a command to an autonomous sequence) that aren't otherwise adjustable via RobotPreferences/NetworkTables/SmartDashboard (as far as I know...)

Then you should probably restructure your code so it can be. Some of the scripting suggestions above may help.

What can we do to reduce the ~2 minutes it takes to recompile our code each time? Is RobotPy (being interpreted) a faster alternative?

RobotPy doesn't require any compilation, so if you're using pyfrc for uploads then its maybe ~15 seconds for an upload, and then the ~30 seconds or so to wait for the robot to reboot (currently RobotPy doesn't support hot reload very well, so we just always reboot).

One nice thing about RobotPy/pyfrc is that it has a robot simulator you can run on your PC, so you can try many types of new things out without having to even touch your robot. This makes your recompile time effectively zero.