Programmers Guild?

[mallot1243]

It seems that programmers are the most underappreciated members of a team. Without us there would only be a robotic beauty contest.

[chris31]

Amen to that.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Great minds think alike.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ogrammer+guild

[/Self-Promoting Link Shooting]

[BlackRoboDragon]

Good for you guys, but it takes every team to make the robot, we share the glory. I'm on mechanical, and without us, there wouldn't even be a robot, we also do the most work since we got to cut the metal and stuff, but programming and electrical are important too, otherwise, the robot wouldn't even move, or do anything. All teams are important, so quit whining, and get to work.

[Cody Carey]

I agree,I pretty much do it all, although I do less programming than I'd like to... And they are all about equally difficult , Animation is frustrating (when you ARE the max team), Machining gets you dirty, and programming... well programing a basic robot is pretty easy... Especially with the stuff they give you.

[Cody Carey]

oh... and I belive that the most under-appreciated sub team is the animation

[BlackRoboDragon]

Yea, you're probably right, I was on animation for a while, got frustrated, and went back to mechanical. I can do that kind of stuff a little well, but I can't really come up with stuff very well, like they wanted me to. So now I just build the robot, because I can't really do anything else.

[X-Istence]

Originally Posted by BlackRoboDragon

Good for you guys, but it takes every team to make the robot, we share the glory. I'm on mechanical, and without us, there wouldn't even be a robot, we also do the most work since we got to cut the metal and stuff, but programming and electrical are important too, otherwise, the robot wouldn't even move, or do anything. All teams are important, so quit whining, and get to work.

The robot is built by all the teams in 5 weeks. It only takes half a second, and one programming mistake to cause it to fly at full speed into a wall. In the process, showing how well it was built!

[BlackRoboDragon]

Yes, any mistake, in building, programming, or electrical will make it hard for the robot. Programming will, as you said, send it into a wall. Building might make it illegal by the refs, or make it fall apart or something. Electrical is about the same as programming. But for awards, the other teams, like publishing, animation, and the like, play a fairly important roll too, along with showing off the robot during the season.

[Cody Carey]

As it only takes one loose bolt to send the robot careening into the driver station and showing us how well the drivers are trained... I see your point, but we could place responsibility on any sub-team if we wanted too I know I've had enough practice

[lemoneasy]

Don't know what your team is like but programmers unappreciated? You must not have a shortage of programmers, never seen people in my team call programming easy. This thread should be deleted, it is turning hostile rather fast, and it is unnessecary...

[coldabert]

programming is easy?

Then you have set your goals too low.
Of course its easy to type the following:
pwm01=p1_y;
pwm02=p2_y;

However, its also easy to hot-glue a wheel to a motor and hold two wires to it.

[sciencenerd]

Originally Posted by BlackRoboDragon

Good for you guys, but it takes every team to make the robot, we share the glory. I'm on mechanical, and without us, there wouldn't even be a robot, we also do the most work since we got to cut the metal and stuff, but programming and electrical are important too, otherwise, the robot wouldn't even move, or do anything. All teams are important, so quit whining, and get to work.

I'm sure that many people think that their sub-team does the most (and/or most important) work. It is only when everyone on the whole FIRST team is willing to put in "the most work", whatever it takes, that you are able to get a great robot in six weeks. I'm sure that there are many great contributions to the team that you have made, and I respect that. But I guarentee you there are programmers out there who put in at least as much time and effort, and come out with some awsome results.

I personally work on the mechanical side of the robot, but it is very important to recognize everyone's contributions.

[Keith Watson]

Originally Posted by mallot1243

It seems that programmers are the most underappreciated members of a team. Without us there would only be a robotic beauty contest.

Careful.

When you enter the professional world you are employed (given a paycheck) to be part of a team, and your team is expected to achieve goals. It takes effort by all team members to achieve those goals and this makes all team members valuable and important, regardless of whether they are software engineers, hardware engineers, qa, documentation, marketing, customer support, managers, administrative assistants, etc.

Or even the FIRST team member who orders the pizza when the team is working late.

Keith Watson
Lead Software Engineer
20 years experience on large scale applications, everything from $20,000 software up to $40,000,000 projects including hardware and software

[mallot1243]

I created this thread for the idea of making a much simpler way of sharing ideas amongst programmers, learning different types of programming, and helping the newbs learn. This isn't just to complain about the underappreication of the programmers. I should have explained myself before I went on a initial tangent like I did.