Changes in "sunspotfrcsdk" for 2014

Technical Java
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So I was poking around the sunspotfrcsdk directory to see what had changed for this season, and would like to point out some interesting changes for discussion:

  • In the “tools/” subdirectory, there is a new item called “OutlineViewer.jar”. It appears to be related to NetworkTables, but I haven’t found any reference to it in the documentation. Does anyone know what it is for?

  • Is it just me, or do the Javadocs for this year still say “2013 FRC Java API”? Not a huge issue, just curious.

  • Perhaps most interestingly, there is a new subdirectory called “sim/”, as well as a “simulate” Ant task. Inside the “sim/” folder are scripts for installing Gazebo simulator and ROS (Robot Operating System) on Debian, as well as what appears to be a plugin for the simulator for FRC. Once again, I see no reference to any of this in the documentation. Does anyone have more information on it?

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It looks like a souped up TableViewer, that lets you modify values as well.

  • Is it just me, or do the Javadocs for this year still say “2013 FRC Java API”? Not a huge issue, just curious.

I noticed that too. I filed a bug here: http://firstforge.wpi.edu/sf/go/artf1705?nav=1&_pagenum=1&returnUrlKey=1389463429732

  • Perhaps most interestingly, there is a new subdirectory called “sim/”, as well as a “simulate” Ant task. Inside the “sim/” folder are scripts for installing Gazebo simulator and ROS (Robot Operating System) on Debian, as well as what appears to be a plugin for the simulator for FRC. Once again, I see no reference to any of this in the documentation. Does anyone have more information on it?

I heard rumors that they were working on a simulator. My guess is that it isn’t finished yet, so that’s why nothing was documented.

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The outline viewer is a hierarchical view of the network tables address space and makes it easier to see all the variables in the table. Tell us if you like it.

As you guessed, The sim folder is some experimental code for supporting simulation with the Gazebo simulator. But it’s not working well enough yet to broadly support it. When it gets a little further, we can try to release documentation for teams interested in playing with it. There’s no guarantee that it will ever be an official part of the kit, just a proof of concept at this point.

Brad

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