Session 1: The FRC Stack and Your First Commit¶
Welcome to the bootcamp! Today you get the big picture of how an FRC robot system fits together, and you make your first contribution to the team's code repository. No Java yet. Today's "running code" is a working development environment and a commit that lands on GitHub with your name on it.
🎯 Objectives¶
By the end of this session you will be able to:
- Name the major hardware, software, and network pieces of an FRC robot system and explain what talks to what.
- Sign in to your own GitHub account as a member of the team's GitHub organization.
- Open the bootcamp code repository in a GitHub Codespace and find your way around VS Code.
- Create a branch, make a change, commit it, and push it to GitHub.
✅ Before you arrive¶
Doing these two things ahead of time saves 15 minutes of the session for everyone.
- Create a GitHub account if you do not have one. Follow GitHub Setup.
- Turn on two-factor authentication on that account. GitHub requires it to contribute code.
- Bring a laptop or Chromebook with a web browser. Everything today runs in the browser.
🗓️ Agenda¶
| Time | Activity | Page |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00 | Welcome, goals of the bootcamp, how the sessions work | |
| 0:05 | The FRC stack: hardware, software, and networks | The FRC Stack |
| 0:25 | GitHub account check and join the team organization | GitHub Setup |
| 0:35 | Create your first Codespace and tour VS Code | Your First Codespace |
| 0:50 | Create a branch, add yourself to the team roster, commit, push | Your First Commit |
| 1:10 | Wrap up: stop your Codespace, preview of Session 2 |
Mentor pacing note
The stack tour is a guided conversation with a diagram, not a lecture. Twenty minutes is enough for the shape of the system. Sessions 4 and 5 come back to the pieces in depth when students touch them.
🧪 Exercises¶
Work through the pages in order. Each one ends with something you can see on screen.
- The FRC Stack - trace a joystick input from the driver's hand to a spinning motor.
- GitHub Setup - confirm you are a member of the organization.
- Your First Codespace - open the repository in the browser and run a command in the terminal.
- Your First Commit - put your name in the team roster and push it to GitHub.
📚 Reference¶
The Session 1 Reference has a glossary of every stack term used today and the git vocabulary you will hear all season.
⏭️ Next session¶
In Session 2 you write your first robot code: the yellow LED on the Romi becomes a makeshift robot signal light, you learn how robot code starts up and runs, and you run your first unit test in your Codespace.