Lesson 1 - Main Loop Control

Setup

Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/FRC-Processing-Lessons/Lesson_1_Main_Loop_Control.git

Navigate to your repository folder, and open the following file in Processing:

Lesson_1_Main_Loop_Control.pde

In case you can't find processing, make sure that after unarchiving the application, setup shortcuts for the executable file.

Series Overview

This is the first of a series of lessons on programming in Java for the FIRST Robotics Competition. It is designed for novice programmers, and can act as a precursor programming sequence to learning FRC-Java. We will introduce:

0. Introduction to programming
1. Data abstraction
2. Procedure definitions
3. Procedure invocations
4. Looped behavior
5. Field scope
6. Class definitions
7. Object instantiations
8. Instance methods
9. Static methods

This series will be taught using the Processing framework for easy visualization.

Lesson Overview

Once the repository is cloned and the file is open in Processing, students should see 11 TODOs listed. Throughout the course of this lesson, students...

1. Will define the behavior for a mandatory, reserved method.
   • Should know what a procedure is.
   • Should know what it means to define a procedure.
   • Should know what a mandatory, reserved method means.
2. Will use pre-defined environment procedures to:
   • Change the size of the canvas.
   • Enforce fullscreen rendering of the canvas.
   • Change the background color of the canvas.
3. Will determine how to call the fill() procedure to modify colors.
   • Should know what it means to invoke/call a procedure.
   • Should know what each of the 3 parameters represent.
4. Will determine how to draw rectangles and circles.
   • Should know what each of the parameters represent.
   • Should know how the coordinate system is represented.