There are still a few sections that aren’t finished yet, but I thought that I would go ahead and let everyone know anyway.
The purpose of this page is to provide help with programming the VEXpro, mainly in the areas where everything needed to accomplish a task or use a Class or command isn’t clear or spelled out enough.
Programming the VEXpro really isn’t that bad and someone with experience in C programming should do fine. I really didn’t have any experience, but I have managed to catch on pretty fast, especially with help from the people on this forum. There were a few areas that I had trouble with - where how to do things weren’t clear. Without the support of help files as with EasyC and RobotC, I had a hard time trying to figure them out. I knew there was just some thing that I was missing.
To help out other people trying to program the VEXpro who may not have the experience or who just need a little help, I decided to put everything down that I had trouble with and how to do it. I’m hoping that others will add to this page and together we can build our own help files
We don’t use VexPro, but are glad that you’re expanding the VexWiki. Your technical help has been very valuable to our team, and we’re glad that the rest of the community gets to enjoy it.
Thanks for the very kind words and support. I don’t know how many times I’ve wondered if I should have just bought the Cortex instead. It is a lot easier to use and has great support and help files.
But, the VEXpro hasn’t been too bad and I hoped the wiki page would benefit others needing a little help too. The VEXpro is for advanced users though and there are so many really smart people on the forum. I just don’t know if anyone else will really need it.
I just hope I didn’t bite off more than I can chew so to speak.
As someone who has written a lot of Documentation, I am glad to see someone who wants to share their knowledge and experiences with others and try to make that “Barrier to Entry” a little bit lower.
Mention “Breaking the Bits into Nibbles, from Right to Left”.
Sometime the Leading Zeros get “lost”… If your Bits are Evenly divisible by 4, it won’t matter, but if there not, you Won’t Get the Hex Values You Want.
Digital Inputs
I have a Tendency to Build my Documents like you have, adding things along the way like, the “Logic AND Truth Table” under the “Digital Inputs” section. I then go back over the Text, numerous times, looking for anomalies and potential misdirection or misleading information.
Since the Logical AND ( and the Related OR, XOR and NOT ) can be used for other purposes besides the Digital Inputs, a Logic Operations Section would be relevant, and could then be referenced from the Digital Inputs Section, as well as other “future” Sections. Your Readers that are Familiar with the “AND Truth Table”, would continue to read the Section, those Readers that are NOT, could “click the Link” and “visit” the Relevant Section…
Also in ‘C’ ( and ‘C++’ and I would guess Java ) there is a Difference between the AND, OR and NOT as Logical Operators verses Bitwise Operators. The Masking under the Digital Inputs Section is a Bitwise AND Operation and Requires a different Operator in ‘C’ and ‘C++’ than the Logical Operator, because you can mix Both Operation Types in the Same Statement.
Lowering the “Barrier to Entry” was exactly what I was hoping to do. I wanted to provide the “missing” little pieces of information that caused me trouble so new users could focus on trying things out and learning how to write programs.
Thanks for the feedback - I really appreciate the suggestions. I will try to make the changes to those sections as soon as I can. I will also add a section on “Logic Operations” and move the “AND” table there. As I get time I will add the truth tables for the other operations as well.
That’s my main problem, trying to find the time to do everything - there never seems to be enough! Right now, I am also trying to work on using vision or image processing with the VEXpro. That was one of the reasons I decided to go with it instead of the Cortex. I can write a program for the VEXpro and I can use the vision software - I just need to pass the information and stream the video.
That’s my problem. I’m wanting to add that information to the wiki page as well because I think it is one of those “really neat things” that you would like to be able to do, but have no idea how. The vision software is really easy to learn with great tutorials!
jpearman and Quazar gave me some places to start, although I really wish now that I could get software supplied with the article to work because it might solve that problem. I just don’t know how to “run” the Java app.
As I was “pondering” this thread, and focusing on Documentation, it occurred to me that your Documentation so far, is like mine on the First Revision…
You Document and Explain the Parts you understand the least, while “glossing over” the parts you understand the best… That helps to “lock it” in your Mind…
Then, you return to the Document, for adding the parts you already know, blending them in, organize it in a Logical Fashion, and place them like Building a House… Lay the Foundation, then the Under-flooring, then the First Floor, then the First Floor Walls the then the… And so on… If one knows the Foundation and Under-flooring, they skip ahead to the First Floor…
That is the “cool part” about the Wiki, because others can fix/add/clean/straighten/agitate to your words, the opposite of all that is true too…
I see that jpearman and Quazar are assisting with that… They are better equipped than me to assist you at this time…
It looks like you are making Headway at this Time… Don’t hesitate to… Ask Questions… Document it… Report is… Since you have a desire to “write it all down”, what better person to spend time teaching the specifics to, because we know you want to “share”, rather than “hope you will share”…
Every person I spend time showing how Vex works is Time Well Spent… A Programming Skill, a Trouble-Shooting Skill, a Problem Solving Skill, adds to a persons individual ability and Well Being, ( because I think that most Everyone wants to be Valued and Needed ),and to contribute to Society and the Betterment of Mankind… If they Write That Down, and Share with Others the Programming/Trouble-Shooting/Problem Solving Skills learned, my Time Spent is Multiplied…