"Java, Sun SPOT and the FIRST Robotics Competition"

[Greg McKaskle]

Java is a safe language, with references, but not pointers. Java does garbage collection so that you don't leak memory in the same way. Java has a simpler and more consistent syntax. Java, being a teaching language, presumably has material aimed at teaching to HS students.

On the down side, Java will run quite a bit slower. The garbage collection causes hiccups where the OS is doing something besides running your code. C++ probably has more robotics usage, so more code to borrow from.

While doing the comparisons, LV is a safe language with no pointers. LV does garbage collection upon completion, but not during execution. LV has the simplest syntax of the bunch. I expect that LV is faster than Java and slower than C++. Oh, and there is that graphics and dataflow thing.

This is my input from a thousand foot perspective. I can't say much more until it is in my hands and we can do side-by-side-by-side comparisons. Perhaps if you learn all three you can update my comparison.

Greg McKaskle