I have several ideas around improving the LV codebase however I am not on a Beta team. Is there any way I can work with a Beta team to help get these changes and suggestions to the right people?
The two things I can think of the top are:
I did start a couple discussion threads in the beta (welcome for others to discuss) and we’ll try to look into it more – we should start meeting more regularly after Cowtown this weekend. But you can send ideas to me and we’ll work on them.
My general impression from being on past Beta test teams is First is looking for test cases, and bug testing. Also Beta team are suppose to provide a training resources to other teams. They are not really looking for new ideas at this point in development.
If you you email your desires and suggestions to First it will at least get to the right place.
@ngreen
I’ll try to find you and we can talk at CowTown
@FrankJ
I was a little afraid of that as a beta seems like the time to test things not the time to actively fix things. I have still sent an email and I will see where that gets me. Wish I knew better who to talk to earlier as this stuff seems shrouded in a lot of mystery unlike Java/C where I see the guys actually working on the code posting on CD constantly.
The guys who work on LabVIEW post here fairly often. Just remember FIRST is a tiny part of their actual job, so their time is pretty limited.
The beta season is really just testing out the changes for the upcoming season.
Unfortunately the beta testing requires NDAs, so unless you are accepted into the program then you can’t really participate on the beta forums or receive the beta software itself.
However, there are no secrets. Beta teams are expected to share everything we learn with the community.
Sorry if the LV FRC dev is not on GitHub or something similar – no intention of mystery or shrouds.
It is a very small team doing this part-time, and we have chosen to use the internal tooling to keep us nimble and efficient. Some of what you are suggesting was already addressed (I hope). I’m not certain what satisfies “lots of things”.
Both of these will get looked at.
Greg McKaskle
I think what I am most missing is something like the NI Idea Exchange that can give insight on what some perceive as problems and get feedback on how others view those issues.
Maybe I will just create a different thread for each of my ideas. I am not just trying to complain all the time I would love to help make things better too, I just don’t know how I can contribute or if what I would contribute would even be considered(I know there is beta testing but I am more talking about feature development than testing).
In case you were unaware, the items you were concerned about are now listed on the internal Beta forum as issues.
Thanks to whomever did that.
Unfortunately I can’t see that forum so I will just have to continue here and hopefully someone finds my case interesting enough to present there.
While I can’t speak for LabView, I know the WPILib team is basically always open to suggestions for changes to existing features or new features to add.