- Author
Peter Johnson, FRC Team 294
- Author
Dustin Spicuzza, FRC Team 2423/1418
- Copyright
Copyright © 2010, Peter Johnson, Ross Light, Dustin Spicuzza
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.
- 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).
Download the binary releases from our FIRSTForge site, unpack them, and run install.py. Download from: http://firstforge.wpi.edu/sf/projects/robotpy
Using the provided build virtual machine is the easiest way to build RobotPy from source. See build-vm/README.txt for instructions.
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.
A Vagrant-based VM is available that you can use to install the needed gcc build environment and frcmake scripts. See the following URL:
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.
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.
- 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.
A brief overview of licensing terms:
- Python: PSF License
- RobotPy (all other support code): MIT License
If you redistribute RobotPy and add other libraries, please include their licensing information here.
Copyright © 2010 Peter Johnson
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.