On the quality and complexity of software within FRC

[Michael Hill]

Originally Posted by faust1706

Sorry for lack of quotes, on mobile. The blame is also on us. My mentor had me calculate the big O of every algorithm I designed, and he questioned every algorithm design I had. If I didn't have a well thought out answer, I wasn't allowed to use it. We've been using that code base ever since, haven't changed a line of it, and it has been able to adapt to the 2013 game, a 3 camera system in 2014, and 3d imaging this year.

Part of our partnership with nvidia will be promoting good code in the community and getting people excited about programming. We thought of the idea of hosting a class at worlds, but we feel even if we had it, not a lot of people would show up.

I do not have a solution to this deeply rooted problem as it ultimately comes down to each individual team. Addressing it as a problem is the first step. Another idea we had with nvidia is to have an award for quality of source code, teams that want to be a contender would submit their code online before competition began.

Here's one of the interesting things about FRC. Your mentor has taught you some really good skills that are applicable at a much higher level than what's normally done in FRC. A bit academic, but from your other posts I've seen on here, it looks like it's made you a better developer. While code may have been developed faster for the robot, it doesn't really matter because you learned something. While you may not calculate the Big O for every algorithm you do, you will probably also keep it in mind in any future algorithms your write.