After a nice rookie year (well, it’s not over yet :D), i’ve noticed a few things about FIRST, and my job (on the team). I’m a programmer, and i’ve noticed that programmers seem to get the least respect. Sure, the guy who can go and build the robot is amazing, but the person who made all the little parts inside work, well, who cares about him? All you programmers know what i’m talking about. So, i’ve decided to do something about it. That’s where RPU comes in.
Robotics Programms’ Union. Yes, that’s right, the programmers will rise up and become noticed! Fellow programmers, unite! We must show the rest of FIRST that we are important! We must demand respect! We need to get recognized! Plus, Dan already made us a nice logo, so you’ll make him cry if you don’t join :p.
See, now you have to join! Otherwise, you’ll be forced back into the programming cave, fed fish heads, and only let out to upload the new program, tell the drivers the controls, then beforced back in. It must stop now! Join RPU!!
Wow, i really need to get out more :p. Also, this is posted in the Chit Chat section to raise more awareness about RPU, cause i don’t think everyone frequents the Programming Forum.
BTW…i do HTML programming…do I count? prob not…I’ve been told by several hackers that HTML “programmers” are the “scum of the earth…” Eh, oh well…you all are psycho.
Yay! We have new members! I think Dan made some RPU Button logos, but we just used up all of our buttons (we were making buttons for our team). If anyone wants the logo, i think we can print them out, and give them out. You need to supply your own buttons and button makers though.
By the way, HTML in itself isn’t really programming, but if you use Java/Javascript/Perl/PHP or whatever else, I would guess that you qualify as a programmer. Sort of
Maybe a joint venture between the RPU and the CODEX, to make a resource for all the FIRST programmers out there? A place to get ideas from, a place to find a shoulder to cry on… hehe, jk.
You know all the programmers on 422 will glady join. If you could, print out the logo on sticker paper, so we can all just paste them to our shirts at Nats or some such. That’d be easier than bringing along button makers, and I’d try to convince my team that our robot needs to wear the RPU logo… We’ll be needing at least 4 stickers
Also, maybe we can make a joint RPU/CODEX logo. Does CODEX even have a logo yet? It’s an idea, and we can get lots of stickers, and hand them out to all the programmers. then, when they’re not respected, they just show off the RPU?CODEX sticker, and then the team will step back in fear :p. Power to the Programmers!
gui-
i’ll be seeing dan tonight (in about 30 minutes actually) so i’ll tell him to go and look at the logo for CODEX. if he feels like it, i’ll ask him to make a CODEX/RPU logo. not sure if he has the time, but i’m guessing he will have some time this weekend. hmm, a cross between the CODEX and RPU logo would look pretty cool. i’ll have to find dan now.
*Originally posted by Greg McCoy *
**I didn’t realize that we were that oppresed
**
To quote the Grail,
We’re living in a dictatorship! A self-perpetuating autocracy in which us, the working class - yes, it’s all about class - are constantly the butt of everyone’s anger! We take the blame for anything that goes wrong! We are the ones being repressed! For example, littlefish180’s comments… come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help, we’re being repressed!!
As for the buttons, click here to download the RPU button templates from my home-brewn webserver (psd format, 12 buttons from one 8.5x11). They’re in approximately 2.25 inch form. We would make some for everyone, but we ran out of blanks to work on. I’m managed to… er… ‘set aside’ 5 blanks for the Glory of Cause, but 5 buttons aren’t enough to encompass everyone that shall become a member of the Cause. We must band together and each contribute to the Cause!
As for the CODEX logo, I can’t do anything tonight, but I’ll work on something over the weekend.
I proudly rise up and support my fellow programmers. Why, the engineers job is relatively easy to understand, any monkey could do it. But we programmers, we’re the sorcerers, we’re not understood, but we have unbelievable power. I say we unite, and in one big voice say “It’s a mechanical problem!”
I don’t know about that…matching gear ratios, building transmissions, and stuff like that seems hard to me. Programming is pretty easy: The computer does exactly what you tell it to.
Blasphemy! Computers DO NOT do what you tell them to do!! Have you ever tried programming an entire robot in PBASIC? Do you know how much you have to do to get around using decimals and negative numbers!?! Gear ratios are easy compared to this! Building transmissions, anyone can do it with the proper instructions! Programming the robot, much harder.
Not only must you check your code before you download it, you must make sure you don’t use up to much variable space, or EEPROM, or any other number of things like that. Then, you must download the code, and test it out. If it works, yay, if it doesn’t, the programmer had better fix it quick! Otherwise, the poor programmer is subject to, “It’s the programmer’s fault, how can i drive when it doesn’t work?” and “Stupid programmers, can’t do anything right” and other not nice things. Plus, the programemrs wind up being the people who can score the game, and on my team, drive the robot the best, seeing as I created the user interface for the robot controls! Don’t say the programmers get off easy, because we work harder than anyone else!
Besides, who else has enough time to learn a whole new language?
ummm…tell that to my code that occasionally blows up in my face at 4 in the morning. then again…you are right that it DOES tend to do what you tell it to…sometimes…when it feels like it.
*Originally posted by Ian W. * Blasphemy! Computers DO NOT do what you tell them to do!!
Ok, this kind of confuses me if you’re being serious
**Have you ever tried programming an entire robot in PBASIC? Do you know how much you have to do to get around using decimals and negative numbers!?! **
Yeah, and it’s suprising to me that you ever have to deal with changing negative numbers to positive numbers and vice-versa that much. Can’t you just reverse the polarity in the wiring?
While I admit programming FIRST robots will make you think pretty hard, programming other things doesen’t get much easier. Just out of curosity, do any FIRST programmers use anything other than PBASIC?
P.S. Sorry if I offended you hard-core programmers.
LOL… not to worry Greg, not all of us are as fanatical as Ian is
In my experience, I’ve taken code that I’ve worked on for hours, plugged it into the PBasic processor, and subsequently seen robots do absolutely nothing I expected. Of course, they follow your instructions to the letter, but they may not get the intent…
First of all, the output to the rest of the robot is done by values of 0 to 254, not negative numbers. 12 volts to a speed controller would be 254, 0 would be -12 volts, and 127 would be 0 volts. So no, you couldn’t possibly just reverse the wiring and expect it to work.
The Basic 2sx stamp doensn’t run on anything other than PBasic. Supposedly you can make a compiler that has the same machine-level code, just use a different language to do it in (I believe it’s called Not-Quite-C), but for all practical purposes PBasic is the most effective route to go. Besides, the default program to run the RC is written in PBasic, and that contians a lot of instructions you can’t get rid of without causing the RC to stop functioning.
I personally use C++ and Java, but neither has any practical use for FIRST robots
