Good GitHub tutorials for VS Code (Java) for a beginner?

[gb478]

We are a second-year team but basically a first because all of the people who did everything graduated last year. I’m our programmer now and have switched from LabView to VS Code (Java). I’m having trouble finding good tutorials since VS Code changed from 2019. I found a few things on GitHub that I think are good but I’m not sure how to use them:

wpilibsuite/allwpilib

wpilibsuite/allwpilib

Others are hatchbottraditional and gearsbot (I would post the links to those but I can’t)

Should I use a mixture of them? Is there one I could follow? Sorry, I have minimal coding experience but I am the only one on the team with any.

[22raor]

You definitely want to install WPILib, it’s the library for basically everything FRC. They have extensive documentation on their website on how to code with it.

[Oblarg]

For starters, VSCode is a text editor, not a programming language; none of the stuff in the examples is specific to VSCode (most of them were developed in IntelliJ, actually ).

The first thing to do is familiarize yourself with Java itself. You have to walk before you can run - if you’re struggling with the language syntax it’s going to be very hard to write working robot code.

Once you have a grasp on the basic syntax of Java and some fundamental OOP concepts (classes, inheritance, interfaces), then you should be able to follow the examples well enough to write your own working code.

You cannot/should not think about the examples as something you “use” for your own code. If you’re copy-pasting code without understanding it, you’re not coding, and it won’t pay off in the long-run.

[winter.programmer]

The first thing to do is familiarize yourself with Java itself. You have to walk before you can run - if you’re struggling with the language syntax it’s going to be very hard to write working robot code.

Yes, for sure. I great way to do this is to go to https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-java and do the free Java lessons they have there.
And if you have any further question, feel free to reach out

[gixxy]

The first thing you want to do is go read the docs! https://docs.wpilib.org/en/latest/

That site explains how to install the plugins and VSCode, the NI Update Suite to image/configure the roboRIO and Radio, and documentation and examples for programming the robot in Java and C++.

After that, go look at the examples in the wpilib repo you linked. I’d suggest the Command-Based examples over the base TimedRobot examples you linked. https://docs.wpilib.org/en/latest/docs/software/examples-tutorials/wpilib-examples.html#command-based-examples

When it comes to using the example projects to learn. What you need to do is understand WHAT you want to do for your team, and use the examples to show you HOW you could implement those kinds of features. It won’t be one-to-one, but the examples cover most of the concepts, from the drivetrain, to PID subsystems, and Trigger commands under various conditions.

I also have a resource compendium for Java, but as you said, because they changed the command-based framework so much this year, some of it isn’t as accurate currently. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jcBLAyJ3iTbsYSnWMVWqHaK8uywGTaTjF98eY_xxpl0/edit#heading=h.ugucixr1zz6v

EDIT: While the specifics may have changed this year with the Command-Based framework, the video tutorials linked in the compendium may still be useful when it comes to explaining and showing the concepts of Commands and Subsystems, just not the exact code for them.