Making it easy to program robotics (FRC)

Several of us were involved in the 2013 First Robotics Competition (http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/) (FRC) in association with Dixie Hollins High School in Pinellas County.

FRC provides three different programming environments: LabView, Java and C++. We're not very pleased with any of these and are exploring other options, including:

Python The use of spreadsheets to better track what inputs affect what outputs Asynchronous programming to do simple multi-tasking without requiring the use of operating systems threads and the synchronization that that entails. Two options here are: Task objects with a "step" method that are linked together to form sequences of actions. The unrestrained use of the C switch statement to be able to resume functions at any point in their control flow.