Greetings ladies and gents.
We are a new team going to FRC for the first time, none of us have any experience in prior competitions.
We have relatively good experience in engineering and programming.
But when we looked at another team’s code, we barely understood it.
Can anyone refer to the programming software we have to use, and refer to any helpful tutorials or documentation related to the library?
Any help would be appreciated greatly.
This should help:
If you’re using LabView to program this is a useful site.
Give us details. This is your First Post, so Welcome to CD! (ChiefDelphi). We need details of the language you want to use. Go by what you know (C|Java|LabView). If you don’t know programming, you might want to start with LabView or Java!
What languages do you have experience in? Which team’s code did you look at?
I would recommend starting with Java or LabView, Java because many schools teach it so it’s a starting point for students and LabView because it’s graphical interface can be more intuitive for people to pick up and go.
The other 3rd most common language is C++.
You may want to update your profile to show your teams geographic location. I found 5 Milton’s in the US and one in Canada.
You should then find an established team near you that is willing to mentor your team, preferably for several years, and help you get started.
Building up on what philso said, please add a little more information and at least your team position so we can help taylor the answer to what you will understand. We may even help you find other teams in your area who you can be mentored by. Since FIRST is a community-based program, that team should be more-than happy to help you out! They’ll help you get started with funding and getting tools. Right now, do you have basic tools like a mill, hand drills, a lathe; those tools are a must!
Also, what is your background in programming? Let us know! If you know one language, a different language, available in FRC will be easy for you!
Otherwise, you can start learning the basics of programming at KhanAcademy, and move onto CodeAcademy. I’d suggest that you use either C or Java because you are likely to use those languages elsewhere.
You’d like the hour of code. I think it is either this week or coming soon. It’ll get you started with code!
Note: Java is not the same as JavaScript. They are completely different languages and you’ll be confused when you program the bot in JavaScript and get hundreds of errors when you were supposed to use Java!
Whatever you do, get-er-done fast! Time’s running out!
Milton, California
Milton, Delaware
Milton, Florida
Milton, Georgia
Milton, Illinois
Milton, Indiana
Milton, Iowa
Milton, Kansas
Milton, Kentucky
Milton, Louisiana
Milton, Massachusetts
Milton, Michigan
Milton, New York
Milton, New Hampshire
Milton, North Carolina
Milton, North Dakota
Milton, Ohio
Milton, Pennsylvania
Milton, Tennessee
Milton, Vermont
Milton, Washington
Milton, West Virginia
Milton, Wisconsin
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*
Their Blue Alliance page says they’re in Ontario.
You missed Ontario. 
Assuming what has been posted about your team being located in Ontario I would suggest contacting these guys: http://simbotics.org/
Although it’s a bit of a drive, they’re an extremely experienced team that has a thing for helping out other FRC teams. Not only would they help you out with programming, but they’d almost for sure help you out with finding sponsors, equipment, design strategy, and numerous other things. They very recently won the Chairmans Award at FRC Worlds, the most prestigious award in FIRST.
I didn’t miss it. I was responding to philso’s “5 in the US” statement.
Ontario is not in the US.
I also left these off the list for the same reason:
Milton, Nova Scotia, Canada
Milton, Newfoundland, Canada
Milton, Queensland, Australia
Milton, New South Wales, Australia
In regards to the OP, you’re close to both teams 1241 and 771. Both are past Chairman’s award winning teams, and I’m sure they’d be happy to help you out, even if it’s just to point you in the right direction.
Also you might want to contact our FRC director, Mr. John Hobbins <john.hobbinsATfirstroboticscanada.org>. He knows a lot of people who he can put you in touch with.
It generally just comes down to what you are comfortable with. I would personally recommend Java or LabView, but you are welcome to try C++ if you have experience with it.
The other team’s code that you saw and didn’t understand: was it in the standard, text-based format? Or was it similar to a circuit diagram, with lots of little boxes and wires? That would help us help you help us all.
Thanks.
It comes down to:
If you have no idea on how to program, learn LabView. That will teach you the logic of programming so that you can learn different languages, like C or Java later. LabView will allow you to have a visual interface with drag-n-drop! It will help you come up with a block structure that the code should help
In short, I suggest that you learn LabView first before moving onto a language like Java if you have absolutely no programming experience!
Thank you so much everyone for replying.
The language we are willing to use and are experienced with is Java.
We are in Craig Kielburger Secondary School, 1151 Ferguson Drive, Milton, ON L9T 6J3.
We are actually using the Windriver workbench to program our robot.
If you want to use Java, your IDE will be Netbeans (See the screenstepslive link I posted earlier in the thread for info on this). Windriver is for C++.
You need to pick one-or-the-other. You can’t program Java in WR, even though it is Eclipse-based. If you want to use C, use WR. If you want to use Java, use netbeans, unless you want to use WR as a text-editor!
Installing FRC Netbeans is probably one of the easiest installs! Just get a couple plugins and configure them, and you are off coding!