Preferred Programming Language

[MrTimKlein]

Originally Posted by jkelleyrtp

We have a bad history for long deploy and build times with Labview... What is a better language for quickly changing and using code?

To respond to this direct question - Python.

Last year our lead programmer was more or less on his own so he used robotpy. In one practice session, we were tuning the control/drive system. He ssh'd into the robot and pushed edited files onto the robot as the robot was driving! Python dynamically accepts the new code on the fly.

Driver: Programmer, the ramp time for acceleration is too slow.
Programmer: hmmm... ok
D: Can you fix it?
P: I just did.
D: Oh yeah, that's great.

Notes:
1. This year, we have a lot of rookie programmers, so we're using Java because that fits the AP Programming classes some are taking.
2. RobotPy is improving. Last year it was awesome as a prototyping language, but it was hard to maintain the discipline to keep the code well organized for a team effort.