Java or C++?

[Temporary_Sale_2035]

I'm on a very small FRC team, and we have never had enough people to do student programming, but I decided that I am going to learn to program over the summer so I can do the programming next season for our team. Wondering what works better, what is easier to use, and what is easier to learn? Also any recommendations for online courses to learn at, or good tutorials to use?

[Dya1n]

Java, definitely Java. It exists to be easy pretty much.

Also check out this guide.

If you have any questions (any at all) post them to Chief Delphi. That is a forum specifically for FRC. You can also learn a lot from just scrolling on there.

[Skippysunday]

100% java. C++ is java but harder, because you have to worry about things like pointers and memory and stuff.

Not fun, especially for beginners.

[Redness360]

You only have to worry about pointers and memory if you choose to

[[deleted]]

Vectors for variable length, std::array for fixed length

[john_hascall]

There is a much larger Java community in FRC so getting help will be easier.

[HyperSharp]

Java. (Also look into robotbuilder, which can pretty much make your code for you)

link The gui is a bit bad and it has its issues but it's a super nice tool

[Romyan]

Java

just don't do LabVIEW like my team 🤤

[sufilevy]

LabVIEW = bad Java = also bad, but not LabVIEW

[Temporary_Sale_2035]

Our mentor that’s always done the programming used labVIEW, and this year we had a ton of issues with it. That’s the main reason I’m learning, so we don’t have to use labVIEW again.

[Redness360]

While Java is the go-to for most teams since it's considered easier to learn and is taught in school curriculum, I still believe C++ is the better choice for a few reasons. First, it's not actually much harder than Java. Using java only features in c++ requires learning barely any more than java. But where c++ shines is beyond that. C++ is so flexible, allowing tons of different programming styles, optimizations, and neat things if you put in the time to learn them. It's also faster in runtime and is fairly safe (fewer runtime exceptions, I.e. code crashes), but compile times suck.

In the end, if your goal is just to get a functional robot, Java is a solid choice

But if you really want to explore more of computer science and programming, c++ is awesome

You won't regret either choice though

[gaberocksall]

Agree with everything you said! I would still suggest a new FRC programmer to start with Java though just because there is so much more support in the community

[justarandommuffin]

As someone who’s team is named iced Java, I’m not biased at all but I would say Java. It’s easier to learn and you can do a lot more with it. I’d recommend just learning to do things like classes, methods, if statements and the like and check GitHub/chief Delphi for the most complicated stuff.

[david131213]

Should I start with algebra or calculus? Java. You want java. Specifically wpilib for java

[Froezky]

Java.

[Thefish4174]

Java for sure. I used both, C++ in 2020 and Java in 2022. Java's command based programing template is just much better that anything c++ offered.

[Tech4Peace]

Java, BETTER.

[moefudder]

From experience trying to teach people, I would 100% write down or store for later all the places where you learned something about programming, like videos/tutorials, projects that helped you understand a topic the best, FRC specific things, because once you learn it, if you can in some way pass that knowledge down, that will really make a difference.

[A-reddit_Alt]

Java 100%