Well folks, with all this discussion about a new programming language coming along with a new chip for our beloved robot controllers, you can imagine my dismay when I discovered that, once again, the first-codex has slipped beneath the surface. I ask myself, why is this? Programmers of FIRST, we must band together! We must join hands in a symbolic union in these troubled times, and share our insights into the nature of computing and the power of our algorithms. Programmers, I say to you, let us share our functions, our systems, even our entire source code, whenever possible, so that we may all learn and grow. To best facilitate this we need a website. If I can provide server space, and the web site, are we actually willing to share our most secret designs on the secret language that only the programmers may know? Or will we take our progress as our own and allow those without the knowledge to flounder about ineptly?
As a gesture of good faith, I say that I am willing to post the unabridged code from team 861 from years past (not that it’s impressive at all), write articles on the basics of programming, and work to unite the programmer nation. Tell me, my brothers (and sisters), are you with me? Or am I just spurting nonsense psychobabble? (I promise, I’m not usually a religious nut)
As one of those without the knowledge (next season’s going to be my first year programming for my team), I’d definitely say it’s a great idea. If we can have the FSN, it shouldn’t be too hard to get a programmer’s site up somewhere.
[edit]I forgot to mention…while the amount that I’m going to be able to contribute is going to be limited at best, I’ll try and get copies of 818’s code from the last two years (since we’ve only existed for two seasons) and post the code on the site, the message board, or whatever we end up using.[/edit]
i think that it would be a good idea to have a place or resource that programmers of all teams would be able to go and get help with programming. I would actually like to see this happen. I’d be happy to help in anyway.
One of my projects for this summer is to update www.robbayer.com to include a lot of beginning PBASIC tutorials, sample code, etc so that it truly is a much more comprehensive programming site. Then again, there’s been rumors of a different language for next year so I’m not sure I want to devote the time yet…
For the present, you can find all my tools (RoboEmu, RoboGUI, etc) as well as the full source codes from the past two years.
I have also noticed the change in programming mentality throughout first. People often treat their code as if it were classified information. But that is not what FIRST is about and i would be more than happy to help out as should all programmers in FIRST. I will also supply code from the years past, as well as make myself available to anyone that needs a little help.
I have also noticed the change in programming mentality throughout first. People often treat their code as if it were classified information. But that is not what FIRST is about and i would be more than happy to help out as should all programmers in FIRST. I will also supply code from the years past, as well as make myself available to anyone that needs a little help.
What I have witnessed so far in the programming aspect of FIRST, is kind of like when a team builds a new gearing mechanism to drive their robot. They are happy to share their designs from prior years, but they like to keep their current designs top secret until the competition season begins.
There is nothing wrong with this, after all, it is a competition. As long as we all continue to share the code from previous years, and help any new teams or new programmers out with any questions they have, it should all be just fine =)
Oh, and do we really need a separate site to share code? I notice this board would work just the same
*Originally posted by Noah *
**Good Idea. This forum would probably serve better. I say, lets have a Source Code subfolder in the programming forum. **
Well, I think that if more than just a few teams begin to share their code (as I hope many will, and with hundreds of teams it certainly is a possibility) i think it would be better to have a forum for several reasons:
code critique: i.e. You could do this better if you write it this way…
easier interface: Some code could be posted straight into a message, without the necessity of a download. This would additionally facilitate searching for code snippets.
The Codex had many great articles for programmers. I also have written my one Autonomous Article (I am planning on making a few more in the next few weeks, so watch out on CD and I’ll post about that when I’m finished) If you wanna check out that one I do have (very basic, I wrote it during the 6 weeks last year to hopefully help some of the teams struggling) http://www.combbat.com/programming/autonomous.shtml If anyone wants to help me setup a programming system, I would like to setup a system like the Codex had and I can put it on our ComBBAT site, I think I have enough room on the server to set it up in the next week or two. Anyone want to contribute? E-mail me or PM me [email protected]
