RobotPy: Python for FRC cRIO Robot Controller

About RobotPy

RobotPy is a distribution of Python intended to be used for the FIRST Robotics Competition_. Teams can use this to write their robot code in Python, a powerful dynamic programming language.

.. _RobotPy: http://firstforge.wpi.edu/sf/projects/robotpy .. _Python: http://www.python.org/ .. _FIRST Robotics Competition: http://www.usfirst.org/

Features

Python_ is simple to learn and easy to maintain.
RobotPy lets you reload code without restarting.
RobotPy provides access to the WPILib class library.
You don't need to use WindRiver (unless you're rebuilding RobotPy itself).

Installation for most people

Download the binary releases from our FIRSTForge site, unpack them, and run install.py. Download from: http://firstforge.wpi.edu/sf/projects/robotpy

Installation from Source using our build VM

Using the provided build virtual machine is the easiest way to build RobotPy from source. See build-vm/README.txt for instructions.

Installation from Source (Advanced Users Only)

Step 1: Install Python

Python 2.7.5 is known to work. Ensure that you add your python installation
directory to your PATH variable.

Note: This step is required for SIP installation

Step 2: Install SIP v4.15.3:

The cmake build process currently checks for exact versions of SIP, as
the generated code changes from release to release.

http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/static/Docs/sip4/installation.html

Note: Installation of SIP on Windows requires Visual Studio or MinGW
installed, see the SIP build instructions for more details.

Step 3: Build the source tree

TODO: Update these instructions for Windows too?

The RobotPy build process uses cmake to build the RobotPy distribution.
frcmake is a wrapper around cmake that sets the build environment up to
build for the cRio.

RobotPy currently uses the GCC 4.8 compiler distributed at the following
URL to build the binary distribution. Wind River may be used, but we haven't
built it with Wind River, so you may run into trouble using it with frcmake.

    http://firstforge.wpi.edu/sf/projects/c--11_toochain

Create a directory (the 'binary directory') outside of the RobotPy source 
tree, and run this:

    $ frcmake /path/to/robotpy

Once you've done this, you can build the code:

    $ make

To copy the build output to the 'dist' directory, run this command from
your binary directory:

    $ make install

To build a binary release, just run the following command and a zip file
will be created in your build directory.

    $ make package

Step 4: Robot Installation

From the 'dist' directory inside of your binary directory, run install.py

Alternatively, you can FTP the contents of the 'robot' directory to your
cRio directly. However, install.py is easier.

Development tools

See the utilities directory for useful development tools that may make your RobotPy development experience easier.

The pyfrc python package is a recommended development package that provides unit testing and other capabilities for your robot code.

https://github.com/robotpy/pyfrc

Technical Overview

RobotPy is a packaging of a patched Python 3.2 interpreter (found in the RobotPy/Python subdirectory of the source code). All access to the WPILib is generated by a SIP interface, which is found in Packages/wpilib/sip/. When the robot is started, it initializes the Python interpreter and runs the file py/boot.py. From there, all responsibility is given to the boot.py script, which is referred to as the bootloader.

If boot.py ever exits (due to an exception, for example), the C++ code exits. The default boot.py simply exits on any user exception. If this happens, you can reboot easily via NetConsole by simply typing "reboot" followed by hitting the enter key. This is how code reloads are performed. As boot.py is written in Python, this behavior can be customized as desired.

.. _SIP: http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/sip/intro

Major Differences from standard Python


*  Several Python modules with large and/or incompatible dependencies removed,
   namely: curses, dbm, gdbm, tkinter, nis, ossaudiodev, resource, spwd,
   syslog, termios, audioop, bz2, crypt, grp, ssl, pwd, and mmap.

Licensing
===========

A brief overview of licensing terms:

*  `Python`_: `PSF License`_
*  RobotPy (all other support code): `MIT License`_

.. _PSF License: http://docs.python.org/license.html
.. _MIT License: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php

If you redistribute RobotPy and add other libraries, please include their
licensing information here.

RobotPy

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

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robotpy / robotpy-crio