Visual Studio Code (VSCode) is the official Software Development Integrated Development Environment (IDE) used for writing, building, debugging and deploying FRC Robot Programs in both Java and C++ Development Languages.
When creating FRC Robot Programs for the VMX-pi platform these official tools can be used, as long as they are installed/configured as described below.
VSCode/WPILib Installation
The WPILib Installer will install both VSCode and WPILib.
IMPORTANT NOTE: VMX-pi is currently supported on WPILib version 2020. Even if you currently have a different version of VSCode/WPILib installed, you will need to install the compatible version as described below. Each installed version of WPILib includes a unique installation of VSCode, and multiple versions of VSCode/WPILib can be installed (“side-by-side”) on a single computer. Therefore, you should not need to uninstall other versions of VSCode/WPILib to work with VMX-pi.
Detailed instructions for installing VSCode/WPILib for VMX-pi can be found at the Studica VMX Offline Installer page.
NOTE: All options including “Java JDK/JRE” and “WPILib Dependencies” should be checked during installation; doing so ensures that key needed files are cached on the local development machine and do not need to be downloaded from the internet at a later time.
Raspbian Toolchain Installation (C++ Only)
A Raspberry Pi-compatible C++ compiler is required to compile a C++ robot application; such a compiler is included within the Raspbian Toolchain.
To install the Raspbian Toolchain to your development computer, connect to the Internet and run the “installRaspbianToolchain” command within VSCode – using the WPI Library VSCode Extension’s “Run a Command in Gradle” feature.
To install the Raspbian Toolchain from the Internet to your development computer, enter the “installRaspbianToolchain” command as shown below and press ‘ENTER’.
Next Steps
After installation VSCode, it’s recommended to become familiar with WPI Library programming by creating a “Getting Started” Robot Application.