Java versus C++

[dirienzo]

Hey everyone. I'm fairly new to FRC programming (and programming in general, for that matter).

I am wondering if anyone has ran any benchmarks on robot code execution with Java and C/C++. Java compiles to bytecode which is then executed by the virtual machine at runtime, correct? While C/C++ compiles into machine code. Is there a noticeable performance difference between the two languages?

Also, when I uploaded code to the cRIO, I remember something about LabView in the console window. Was a LabView 'layer' created for communication with the hardware; what is going on there?

I am the lead developer for this season and our previous developers did not explain much. This past season was the first year using Java for our team, so I want to make an educated decision on language choice.

On the other hand, if there are no performance differences, it's just a syntax preference then.

Thanks,
Nick DiRienzo