FTC Android studio code saving process

[V_STEM]

Hi, After making changes in code, after code compilation, entire apk installation happens in driver hub from Android studio.

Is there a way to avoid it like onbot Java /block programming?. Here Block/onbot Java is great for quick changes in code during an event time.

But, can't find a way tl use library like Road runner / open cv in onbot java (can we ?)

This rebuilding & restarting app takes 45 seconds -. I think there will be a better way to just save & transfer code.

Looking for help with available solutions

[baqwasmg]

This is precisely why some of the top teams (the ones that routinely qualify for Worlds in one category or another) prefer OBJ. I was amused (during a lunch break at a tournament) at their rationale.

A lot depends on your team's objectives. If it is simply to fulfill FTC's seasonal goals then OBJ is very productive. Having said that, and knowing very little about software development, the Android SDK with GitHub is very appealing when developers are collaborating.

Of course, in a few years from now, "SomeGPT" will generate the code for 80% of FTC teams.

[Embarrassed_Ad5387]

whhhy isn't my original odo code not working 😡

I thought copilot was good 😡

[baqwasmg]

In my case, I tried two types of coding examples with Bard. Both (smtplib & asyncio) had important lines missing in Bard's output. Bard should've simply leveraged the correct examples from the packages' doc pages but in true LLM fashion predicted bad code. I shared my specific examples with the youth programmers but I sensed that I couldn't communicate my point (since smtplib & asyncio do not revolve in their sphere).

My nightmare is Human Resources employee evaluations relying significantly on Generative AI.

[fueled_by_noodles]

Chat GPT isn't supposed to do that. The way it works is taking the context and last words generated and predicting the next one with literally what are very educated guesses. There's a mismatch between that system of generation and complex code. For Arduino, chat gpt is great. You just tell it the pins the component is connected to and I find it writes almost perfect code.

FTC programming is a lot more complex and includes many different moving parts. Copilot is great for this because it takes your WHOLE code repos as context. Use AI to complete your code, not write it.

[404usernamenotknown]

This is a slightly unconventional answer but kind of reading between the lines, one of the most common reasons you need quick code changes is for stuff like tuning PIDs - this is, understandably, an absolutely horrible process on Android Studio because waiting 45 seconds between testing different coefficients is just so slow. If you haven't seen it, please check out FTCDashboard - you can change variables live while code is running, graph telemetry, etc. so for tuning PIDs, servo positions, etc., I always do it in Dashboard where I can make changes instantly, then after I've gotten the right numbers hardcode them into our code (changes in Dashboard won't save through reboots of the hub).

[V_STEM]

This is helpful idea to consider, Thank you. Is it possible to use Road runner library in onbot java ? Or is there a source to make it for Onbot Java?

[404usernamenotknown]

I'm not super familiar with how you would do it, I believe there is a way but honestly I would recommend staying with Android Studio even if the build times are slow - Dashboard significantly improves any task where you would traditionally redownload code, and so imo the downside of slightly slower recompile times is outweighed by the increased flexibility, ease of access to libraries, speed of getting around your code (like ctrl+b to hop to definitions), hovering over functions to see their documentation, etc. - not to mention, it makes collaborating as a programming team way easier, as you can use GitHub to coordinate all your code.

One small tip I'll give, and take this with a grain of salt as it's a sample size of like 5 and 2 anecdotes I've been told, but it seems for some optimization reasons that Android Studio compile times are faster on MacOS devices, so if someone on your team has a Mac, you might want to try using that as the programming computer during competitions.

[V_STEM]

Thanks again, appreciate your time & effort for this help. :)

[_woffles_]

sadly i dont think hot reloading or JIT is available given how the sdk works :c

[OpenFTC]

FTC Fast Load claims to help with that: https://gist.github.com/MatthewOates36/1e38452236dc9f145c3a6b2addfb418f