This page provides setup instructions for the software team's tools so members can quickly start learning C++. If anything doesn't make sense or you need help, please contact a team member or mentor.
Please install 64-bit versions of tools if possible and make sure the bitness of all your tools matches by using the appropriate archives/installers.
Note: To those installing Ubuntu on their PC for the first time, there is a risk of wiping your existing OS on accident. Therefore, it is highly recommended to back up all of your valuable data to a seperate location to avoid data loss.
Visual Studio Code is an integrated development environment which makes it easier to write, build, and test programs written in C++, Python, and more! Once set up using one of the installation methods above, then all you need to know is how to use the terminal and a little bit of git to get started.
Note: Visual Studio Code occasionally shows outdated or false errors in a project file. There is no workaround, so instead just use gradle/CMake to build your project. Keep in mind errors shown in the IDE aren't authoritative. The console build output should be used to determine whether the executable was built successfully.
This is the compiler gradle or CMake will use to build the programs you write.
CMake will be used to build your personal projects. For better integration with VS Code, download the "CMake Tools" extension under VS Code's extensions tab.
Gradle is a build automation tool that we use to build the robot project. To use it, just run one of the scripts in the robot project. See here for more.
Git is a version control system used to manage the code you write. See Intro to Git for more information and detailed setup.
GitHub provides web based code review and repository management for the Git version control system. Our GitHub organization is here. User setup instructions are here.
Formatters help ensure style guide conformance by automatically correcting deviations. We use the Python 3 scripts provided in WPILib's style guide repository and clang-format for source code formatting. We also use Python 3 for optimizing feedback control system behavior. To run the formatter on a project, run:
python3 -m wpiformat
Note: The formatter should be considered a safety net. It is good practice to be familiar with the enforced style guide and be able to write code in that style directly.