Robot2021

The next generation Robot2020.

Contributing

We welcome contributions from team members of all levels of experience! This section will lay our our expectations for the codebase.

Style Guide

We use the Google Java Style guide as a starting point for our style, making the following exceptions:

• Braces do not have to be used where optional (4.1.1).
  • Reason: This is less verbose, and is what our formatter opts for.
  • Exception: If the if has braces, the else if and else should have braces.
• We name our constants with lower camel case, preceeded with a k, e.g. kPortControllerDrive (5.2.4).
  • Reason: This is preferred by WPILib and other FRC teams.
• We name out field names with lower camel case, preceeded with an m_, e.g. m_drivetrainSubsystem (5.2.5).
  • Reason: This is preferred by WPILib and other FRC teams.

Naming Variables

Variables should be named such that they are discoverable to intellisense.

• Bad: kLeftEncoderPort.
• Good: kPortEncoderLeft.

Organizing Classes

Ordering Members

Classes should have their contents ordered like so:

• Enumerations.
• Member variables.
• Constructor.
• Methods.

Adding Comments

Comments added to class members can be categorized into 3 categories:

• Javadoc comments, which describe what a field does.
  • This is required for all classes, and their public members. Parameters @param and returns @return aren't absolutely required.
• Group comments, which make a new "group" of fields. Every member variable should be in a "group".
  • This is required for all class members.
• General explanatory comments.

To give an example within a class:

// Motor Controllers <THIS IS A GROUP COMMENT>

private final WPI_TalonSRX m_motorFrontLeft =
    new WPI_TalonSRX(RoboRIO.CAN.kPortMotorDriveFrontLeft);  // Notice how members of the same group
private final WPI_TalonSRX m_motorFrontRight =               // don't need newlines between each
    new WPI_TalonSRX(RoboRIO.CAN.kPortMotorDriveFrontRight); // member!
private final WPI_VictorSPX m_motorBackLeft =
    new WPI_VictorSPX(RoboRIO.CAN.kPortMotorDriveBackLeft);
private final WPI_VictorSPX m_motorBackRight =
    new WPI_VictorSPX(RoboRIO.CAN.kPortMotorDriveBackRight);

// Quadrature Encoders <THIS IS A GROUP COMMENT>

/** The left relative encoder. <THIS IS A JAVADOC COMMENT> */
private final Encoder m_encoderRelativeLeft =
    new Encoder(
        RoboRIO.DIO.kPortsEncoderDriveLeft[0],
        RoboRIO.DIO.kPortsEncoderDriveLeft[1],
        RoboRIO.DIO.kPortsEncoderDriveLeft[2]);
// This encoder must be reversed so that values will be consistent with the left drive encoder.
                                                             // ^ This is just a general explanatory
                                                             //   comment.
/** The right relative encoder. <THIS IS A JAVADOC COMMENT> */
private final Encoder m_encoderRelativeRight =
    new Encoder(
        RoboRIO.DIO.kPortsEncoderDriveRight[0],
        RoboRIO.DIO.kPortsEncoderDriveRight[1],
        RoboRIO.DIO.kPortsEncoderDriveRight[2],
        true);

// Gyroscope <THIS IS A GROUP COMMENT>
private final Gyro m_gyro = new ADXRS450_Gyro(SPI.Port.kMXP);

Writing Javadoc Descriptions

For consistency, the most important takeaway of this section is to omit phrases like "This class _" or "This method _". This helps keep documentation from going on too long, and ensures consistency.

When writing a Javadoc description, if the item does something, start it with the verb. For example, here's a method which sets a value:

/**
 * Sets the speed that the robot drives at.
 *
 * @param speed The value will be used as the scaling factor [0..1.0].
 */
public void setSpeed(double speed) {

If the item is something, just say what it is. For example, here's a class that just contains constants:

/** Constants for the Control Area Network/CAN bus. */
public static final class CAN {

Now, subsystems are a bit of a weird middle ground. In a way they are the physical robot subsystem they control. For these, we say they represent it:

/**
 * Represents the drivetrain subsystem.
 *
 * <p>The drivetrain encapsulates the wheels the robot moves around with, the motors that power
 * them, and the encoders that measure their movement. This subsystem also encapsulates the
 * gyrometer, because it is tightly integrated with the robot driving.
 */
public class DrivetrainSubsystem extends SubsystemBase {

Notice how this one has a body paragraph. For items which need further description, these can be added.