What is Easy C good for?

[Gary Dillard]

EasyC (including the WPI Library) has been an invaluable tool for our young team.

At the end of build week 3 we had zero lines of code, which is when I discovered that our software team (all students) had zero experience programming in any language, and had no clue what to do. There are really 2 separate things that need to be taught - programming logic and syntax. My programming experience involves FORTRAN and punch cards, so I had to come up to speed fast and bring them along with me. With EasyC I didn't have to learn syntax (much less teach it) - the program takes care of all of that for me. I could focus on the logic required, drag and drop the functions, and get some working code. I can show them logic, explain it, use it to debug, etc. without having to sweat where the stupid semicolons go.

We got the drive train running in about 2 hours the first day, and code for the entire robot in about another 3 hours a day later. So far everything has worked either the first time or after one debug change. We would be sunk without EasyC.