Driver station coding and other

[Thomas Clark]

Okay, I accidentally caused another thread to get hijacked and locked, so I thought I should create a new one specifically for this topic.

After my first season, I'd like to say is that, truthfully, the FIRST tools are poorly thrown together. Although I'm not as experienced here as some people, I'd like to say a few things about them and ask if anyone agrees.

The robot itself runs an unprotected FTP server. I really fear someone exploiting this, and I've already demonstrated that this is possible (no, I won't post the code). IMHO, they should either use a password, or, better yet, use encrypted SSH file transfer (SFTP).

The compiler doesn't support anything besides Windows, and some of us prefer Linux. The IDE I don't care about (I never use IDEs, just makefiles), but FIRST is limiting users' experiences by limiting who can program and on what operating system. IMHO, they should provide a build of the WPI library and compiler for Linux.

Another this is the library. Although it's obvious that tremendous effort was put into it, I can tell that it was rushed to be finished before the build season started. All I can say is that I hope it's better next year.

Agree? Disagree? Another other notes?