FIRST time being Lead Programmer! (Pun intended)

[Ghost-422]

Hello everyone!!! I created this thread/post to ask about being the Lead Programmer for the FIRST time. My team (1319) is going to SCRIW (South Carolina Robotics Invitational and Workshops). I have never been lead programmer and any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[F22Rapture]

What language are you planning on using? How many programmers to you have? How much experience do you and your team have?

The most important thing is just to make sure you and everybody else is familiar and comfortable with the conventions, to make sure all code is readable and well-commented, and to keep a clean working copy at all times. More than anything, your job as team leader is to make sure your programmers can work together effectively, and that means keeping track of what has been done, what needs to be done, what needs to be fixed, and maintaining code quality.

[yara92]

Programming FRC Robot for Mentor How to begin??
I am a mentor for our team every 2 years I have new kids the other programmer they study at the universities so far at us.
My quotation is from where we can began to connect the pieces together. For someone did not study a programming self-education.
I tryed to read the Blag Brad Miller Associate Director WPI Robotics Resource Center sush as 2011_FRC_KO_Programming_101_C.

and I Found this
Using a Virtual Robot Model – Testing and Debugging Autonomous Code Through Simulation
Why wait until you have a robot before testing your autonomous code? Fully test and debug your autonomous code using simulation.
by: Chris Hibner
02-11-2010 02:07 AM
at http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2331
any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[kdehaan42]

Make sure you pass on your programming knowledge to the younger team members our team has had issues with having to relearn everything because the seniors didn't teach anyone how to program.

[yara92]

That’s True you know the issue. Still the quotation who to begin

[Tommy F.]

I'm assuming you already know what you're doing as far as how to use whatever language you are using to make a robot work. Being the lead then becomes teaching others what you already know, and to expand your knowledge further, since you don't really know some things until you can teach other people, and that's exactly what you need to do.

Keep your hands off the keyboard/mouse/input device once you've taught everyone the basics. Sit with them, point out things they may do wrong, and correct them while explaining why the way you did it would work.

If you don't know what's wrong, lead them to the direction where you may find the answer. I was the Software Lead on my team for the first time last year myself. I had many talks from my mentors last year about doing taking the computer and going everywhere super-fast to find out how to fix the problem we were having. Go to your other programmers, and ask them how they think the problem would be solved. Try it out and get them involved.

Assign roles. Everybody doesn't have to be working on getting the drive train code working. Have someone work on the drive train and another person work on the manipulator or testing the sensors to make sure they work properly.

The lead role may also put you in charge of how data is stored and backed up. Take the time now to find an effective way for you to backup your code. You don't want to end up having to do the same thing over and over again because you couldn't find where you saved it. Stay organized.

[Ghost-422]

Originally Posted by F22Rapture

What language are you planning on using? How many programmers to you have? How much experience do you and your team have?

The most important thing is just to make sure you and everybody else is familiar and comfortable with the conventions, to make sure all code is readable and well-commented, and to keep a clean working copy at all times. More than anything, your job as team leader is to make sure your programmers can work together effectively, and that means keeping track of what has been done, what needs to be done, what needs to be fixed, and maintaining code quality.

Ok we use LabView, we have 3 (including myself) but only 2 (including myself) are attending. We have, I would say, average programming knowledge but everyone can learn more.

Originally Posted by kdehaan42

Make sure you pass on your programming knowledge to the younger team members our team has had issues with having to relearn everything because the seniors didn't teach anyone how to program.

Ok thank you for the advice.

Originally Posted by 7h0m54

I'm assuming you already know what you're doing as far as how to use whatever language you are using to make a robot work. Being the lead then becomes teaching others what you already know, and to expand your knowledge further, since you don't really know some things until you can teach other people, and that's exactly what you need to do.

Keep your hands off the keyboard/mouse/input device once you've taught everyone the basics. Sit with them, point out things they may do wrong, and correct them while explaining why the way you did it would work.

If you don't know what's wrong, lead them to the direction where you may find the answer. I was the Software Lead on my team for the first time last year myself. I had many talks from my mentors last year about doing taking the computer and going everywhere super-fast to find out how to fix the problem we were having. Go to your other programmers, and ask them how they think the problem would be solved. Try it out and get them involved.

Assign roles. Everybody doesn't have to be working on getting the drive train code working. Have someone work on the drive train and another person work on the manipulator or testing the sensors to make sure they work properly.

The lead role may also put you in charge of how data is stored and backed up. Take the time now to find an effective way for you to backup your code. You don't want to end up having to do the same thing over and over again because you couldn't find where you saved it. Stay organized.

Ok thank you very much all the help is greatly appreciated!