Programming

For New Programmers

Interested in a career in software engineering or similar? Join our programming team to gain real, hands-on experience with computing. Please keep in mind that you don't need your own PC, and you can learn all of these things after you join! Here is an overview of the programming language and tools we use.


W3 School

Our team uses Java to code our robot. It is one of the world's most popular programming languages. In fact, around 93% of computers run on it. Learning to Java may sound daunting, but don't worry, Codecademy is a free website that makes it easy.  

Please note that JavaScript is NOT related to Java, and we do not use JavaScript .


GitKraken

You will need to learn how to use GitKraken. GitKraken is a codebase management system that helps us accurately keep track of updates to our code. You may also want to create an account with Github, since all of our code is published on there.


PathPlanner

PathPlanner is an innovative tool we use to map out the robot's autonomous (driverless) paths on the field. With a few simple clicks, we can generate code using it. Make sure you download the latest version. You will also need to download PathPlannerLib for addition features (after downloading WPILib, see below). 


WPILib

Last but not least, we use WPILib, a library of Java commands that allows us to connect to the hardware in our robot. It also simplifies our process. Every year, WPILib has a brand new version with more features each time. You can download the latest version by clicking the button below.