LabVIEW vs JAVA

[pylb]

We are currently trying to decide which language is the best to program a robot for the FRC. I know LabVIEW is well suited, but some of our group prefer JAVA.

Anyone has experience in both? and what are the pro and con on each?

thanks,

[Aldo_A]

Hi pylb,

Between C++ and JAVA, for the most part they will be very similar in functionality and flexibility. JAVA seems to offer a more robust documentation base for any questions that might come up.

In regards to your question on preference between LabVIEW and JAVA, LabVIEW allows rapid prototyping. With the LabVIEW FRC Software, there is a template robot project that comes shipped with the software allowing you to drive the robot right out of the box. The project also offers modularity containing separate VIs describing their specific function which then you can add your own code for your application.

One very useful function for an FRC Robot will be the use of LabVIEW's PID Toolkit.

For example, whenever you want to tune the speed of a motor, you can set up a Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) feedback loop with your own Set Point, Gain, and Process Variable values complemented with a Graph that will allow you to visualize how your Process Variable behaves as it approaches your desired set point as discussed in this Knowledge Base article http://www.ni.com/white-paper/3782/en The use of visuals such as Graphs, Charts, and Indicators in LabVIEW greatly help when troubleshooting issues and monitoring the health of the robot.

With JAVA, you will need to import other libraries to add visual aids and might increase development time depending on your experience.

Let us know if there is anything else in specific you are concerned about. I hope this info helps!