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Re: There are myriads of posts mentioning Robots, but what about FIRST?

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In <b1fa1896-af08-4bd7-917f-08c68bb0a0b5@googlegroups.com> visualforth@rocketmail.com writes:

>Forth is the ideal language for Robots, but it is not used at FIRST.

>There are thousands of high school students participating at FIRST competitions, and NI is dominating the Robot control with LabView, C++ and Java:

>FIRST and NI Announce New Robot Controller: Smaller, Faster, Super Rugged

>http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-hardware/first-robotics-competition-national-instruments-athena-robot-controller

>What about a FIRST FORTH team?

If FIRST has an agreement with NI to supply the software and hardware at
a significant discount to enrolled teams--and especially if teams are
required to use the NI device as the "core" of the robot with the
included software--then it is a moot issue.  But I don't know how much
of this is true.  Certainly it seems the expectation for other FIRST
programs (if not with FRC) is that participants are expected to work
from the appropriate kit they issue for the targeted age group (e.g.,
LEGO Mindstorms for students in primary school).

More important than any of the technical aspects, the FRC program seems
to draw largely upon the availability of volunteer technical "mentors"
(e.g., professional programmers and engineers) to advise the students
how to build a working robot.  Are there Forthers out there who are
ready to volunteer a huge amount of their time and expertise to assist
students with building a robot?  Probably.  But they are unquestionably
in the minority.  The generic tools they package with robot kit makes
the program accessible to a much larger pool of potential mentors.  In
my view, getting hung up on language choice misses the point of the
FIRST program, although Forth would undoubtedly be an excellent option
for students learning how to program a robot.

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There are myriads of posts mentioning Robots, but what about FIRST? visualforth@rocketmail.com - 2013-05-14 11:23 -0700
  Re: There are myriads of posts mentioning Robots, but what about FIRST? lynx <rinkasu@kaze.void.null> - 2013-05-14 19:30 +0000
    Re: There are myriads of posts mentioning Robots, but what about FIRST? visualforth@rocketmail.com - 2013-05-14 15:53 -0700
    Re: There are myriads of posts mentioning Robots, but what about FIRST? visualforth@rocketmail.com - 2013-05-14 17:42 -0700

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