WIP for 2027 - Time to Get Discussions going by arbessette · Pull Request #3320 · wpilibsuite/wpilib-docs

arbessette · 2026-06-04T19:29:49Z

Major changes to homepage and getting started, trying to keep one page for all. I don't like pages that FRC comes before FTC, might be worth moving FTC to appear first. I had help from Claude, so wording may be wrong still.

Draft open for discussion: we can keep all, parts, or none of it.

for all. I don't like pages that FRC comes before FTC, might be worth moving FTC to appear first. I had help from Claude, so wording may be wrong still. Draft open for discussion: we can keep all, parts, or none of it.

sciencewhiz · 2026-06-08T03:33:04Z

It looks great, but I'm worried about the maintainability of a bunch of raw HTML. I'm guessing it also doesn't translate. Have you seen how far you can get with the customization of sphinx-design?
https://sphinx-design.readthedocs.io/en/alabaster-theme/cards.html
https://sphinx-design.readthedocs.io/en/alabaster-theme/css_classes.html
https://sphinx-design.readthedocs.io/en/alabaster-theme/css_variables.html

arbessette · 2026-06-17T22:02:05Z

It looks great, but I'm worried about the maintainability of a bunch of raw HTML. I'm guessing it also doesn't translate. Have you seen how far you can get with the customization of sphinx-design? https://sphinx-design.readthedocs.io/en/alabaster-theme/cards.html https://sphinx-design.readthedocs.io/en/alabaster-theme/css_classes.html https://sphinx-design.readthedocs.io/en/alabaster-theme/css_variables.html

I just saw this message, need to work on my github notifications. I'll look into this.

…T also fix step 1 layout

sciencewhiz · 2026-07-29T04:31:23Z

+     <a class="wl-core-card" href="docs/software/dashboards/index.html"><div class="wl-core-title">Dashboards</div><div class="wl-core-desc">Elastic, AdvantageScope, Glass, and NetworkTables for real-time telemetry.</div></a>
+     <a class="wl-core-card" href="docs/software/advanced-controls/index.html"><div class="wl-core-title">Advanced Controls</div><div class="wl-core-desc">PID, feedforward, state-space, kinematics, and system identification.</div></a>
+     <a class="wl-core-card" href="docs/software/wpilib-tools/robot-simulation/index.html"><div class="wl-core-title">Simulation</div><div class="wl-core-desc">Test robot code on your laptop : no hardware required.</div></a>
+     <a class="wl-core-card" href="https://github.wpilib.org/allwpilib/docs/release/java/index.html"><div class="wl-core-title">API Reference</div><div class="wl-core-desc">Java, C++, and Python class and method documentation.</div></a>


This only links to the java API docs. There probably needs to be a landing page with the three links.

made a new landing page

sciencewhiz · 2026-07-29T04:38:20Z

 # -- Project information -----------------------------------------------------

-project = "WPILib Documentation"
+project = "FIRST Robotics"


undo this change

sciencewhiz · 2026-07-29T04:38:33Z

 # Configure OpenGraph support
 ogp_site_url = "https://docs.wpilib.org/en/stable/"
-ogp_site_name = "WPILib Documentation"
+ogp_site_name = "FIRST Robotics Documentation"


undo this change

sciencewhiz · 2026-07-29T04:40:05Z

+             <div class="wl-ret-label wl-frc-label">FRC</div>
+             <h3 class="wl-ret-h">Pre-Season Checklist</h3>
+             <ul>
+               <li>Download and run the <strong>2027 WPILib installer</strong></li>


These should all have links to the appropriate articles

links added

sciencewhiz · 2026-07-29T04:40:28Z

+             <h3 class="wl-ret-h">Pre-Season Checklist</h3>
+             <ul>
+               <li>Download and run the <strong>2027 WPILib installer</strong></li>
+               <li>Flash your Systemcore using <strong>FRC 2027 Game Tools</strong></li>


Needs to be fixed

sciencewhiz · 2026-07-29T04:52:46Z

This feels a little odd, but I'm not sure a good fix. For example, is this the place to spell them out, or can that be elsewhere so that the FRC/FTC "tags" look like they do in the rest of the page. And does it need to be in a separate line, or can it replace the colored text?

arbessette · 2026-07-30T20:32:24Z

This feels a little odd, but I'm not sure a good fix. For example, is this the place to spell them out, or can that be elsewhere so that the FRC/FTC "tags" look like they do in the rest of the page. And does it need to be in a separate line, or can it replace the colored text?

removed the icons, and spelled out in the colored text. I didn't put the acronyms in this commit but will be changed in the next one

… darkmode and adjust a couple more pages

zachwaffle4

In general I think docs should either be written as if FTC is already using systemcore, or we should wait until the 2027-2028 season to mention FTC at all.

zachwaffle4 · 2026-08-06T19:47:48Z

+WPILib is the standard software library for programming
+*FIRST*\ |reg| robots.
+It provides the classes and tools needed to control motors, read sensors,
+communicate with the Driver Station, and run autonomous routines — across


Suggested change

communicate with the Driver Station, and run autonomous routines — across

communicate with the Driver Station, and run autonomous routines across

zachwaffle4 · 2026-08-06T19:49:30Z

+     - NetworkTables browser
+     - ✓
+     - ✓
+   * - **Shuffleboard**


I feel like Shuffleboard shouldn't be mentioned at all since it was removed; teams who used it (of which there were like 3 anyway) will find it was removed in the "new for 2027" page.

zachwaffle4 · 2026-08-06T19:51:25Z

+     - FRC DS (Windows)
+     - FRC DS (Windows)


Suggested change

- FRC DS (Windows)

- FRC DS (Windows)

- _FIRST_ DS (Windows, MacOS, Linux)

- _FIRST_ DS (Windows, MacOS, Linux)

Maybe mention that it is only legal on Windows though

zachwaffle4 · 2026-08-06T19:51:50Z

+   * - **SmartDashboard**
+     - *(Removed 2027)*
+     - Use Elastic instead.
+   * - **Shuffleboard**
+     - *(Removed 2027)*
+     - Use Elastic instead.


I would just get rid of these since they don't exist.

zachwaffle4 · 2026-08-06T19:52:19Z

+
+   .. grid-item-card:: What are vendor libraries?
+
+      Hardware vendors (REV, CTRE, etc.) ship WPILib extension


Also mention that many vendordeps that are purely software (eg PhotonLib and PathPlannerLib) exist.

zachwaffle4 · 2026-08-06T19:52:41Z

+      :link-type: doc
+      :class-card: sw-card-frc
+
+      **FRC**


Suggested change

**FRC**

**FRC + FTC With Systemcore**

zachwaffle4 · 2026-08-06T19:58:20Z

+   *Workspaces* with a Deploy button to select which one runs on
+   the Systemcore. Simulation is not planned for OnBot environments.
+
+**FTC REV Duo**


to be entirely honest I think there's no point in this section at all considering we've already said "if you're using the android system go to ftc-docs" at least 7 times on the other pages

roboteer5291 · 2026-08-06T20:02:57Z

On the FTC with WPILib page, there's multiple mentions of the DUO system. While I understand that the control and expansion hubs are technically DUO (as in, that's what they're listed as on Rev's site), this feels very confusing as DUO is more of a product line than a control system. I personally associate DUO more with the mechanical products than the control and expansion hubs, and it feels weird to classify the control system based on a vendor's arbitrary classification of it rather than the functional impact for how it's programmed/used, especially considering DUO products (expansion hubs) can be used in the hybrid control system option with WPILib (I believe, not sure I'm 100% up to date on what options will be legal).

I feel like it would be more appropriate to refer to the old control system as the legacy control system (phones or control hubs), and call out that the new or hybrid control system options will be what you use with WPILib, while the pure legacy option will use the existing FTC SDK.

zachwaffle4 · 2026-08-06T20:12:22Z

I've been referring to the existing FTC system as "the Android-based FTC Control System" which also aligns with the Competition Manual.

arbessette · 2026-08-07T13:02:44Z

Thank you for this feedback, I agree with you I think the legacy system or the Android-based FTC control system makes more sense than DUO. I am less experienced with FTC than FRC, so this helpful.

This is a prototype of what documentation could look like which means its rough under the hood to try new things out. This will not be the final form of the documentation. The goal is to try to make the documentation is more user friendly for the beginners, and maintain all the valuable information for the advanced users. It is also a prototype to see how FTC and FRC documentation can be made synchronous.

The final form will be based on feedback and more streamlined under the hood

Co-authored-by: Zach Harel <zach.harel42@gmail.com>

arbessette force-pushed the 2027exp branch 5 times, most recently from be203f1 to 88df58f Compare June 5, 2026 19:31

arbessette added 6 commits June 5, 2026 19:30

Continue working on CI fixes

3e6b8ca

Working on CI fixes

a7de5d9

Suppress rediraffe warnings from upstream redirect conflicts

0b12b01

Still fixing CI checks

4c9e41d

Fix PDF filename to match CI expectation (wpilib.pdf)

d1ad5d4

arbessette force-pushed the 2027exp branch from d2525a9 to d1ad5d4 Compare June 5, 2026 23:30

arbessette added 2 commits June 9, 2026 11:59

Clean up CSS files and fix dark mode text

a1d9e76

Content review

292e6c0

arbessette added 9 commits June 18, 2026 18:49

change step pages to sphinx-design

ad0c893

change introduction to sphinx-design

e1731d2

change pages from html to sphinx

7958da1

change pages from html to sphinx

5d15c5a

fix latex build: remove emoji conflicts

c35a6ac

expand and mirror FTC homepage from current

5e596ae

changed zero-to-robot steps and hardware overview from raw HTML to RS…

55e0337

…T also fix step 1 layout

migrate YouTube embeds from raw HTML to :: directive

ecc8139

migrate remaining youtube

f37d466

sciencewhiz reviewed Jul 29, 2026

View reviewed changes

addresses comments and some additional adjustments; still need to fix…

21d1b28

… darkmode and adjust a couple more pages

fix white space

c4f1a03

zachwaffle4 suggested changes Aug 6, 2026

View reviewed changes

more updates, fix darkmode and rework Step 1

0cd3688

arbessette marked this pull request as draft August 7, 2026 12:21

arbessette and others added 4 commits August 7, 2026 11:18

Update source/docs/software/what-is-wpilib.rst

a246934

Co-authored-by: Zach Harel <zach.harel42@gmail.com>

updates from comments

3107cd3

fix spelling

a843cba

WIP: Zero to Robot / FTC rework (not final)

24f9a00

arbessette force-pushed the 2027exp branch from 65e49fd to 24f9a00 Compare August 25, 2026 17:23

arbessette added 5 commits August 31, 2026 16:05

WIP: Zero to Robot rework (not final)

898e674

more restructuring, not final

879d840

fix redirects

8344f3e

fix CI

89df47d

missing redirect

c8a4f84

	communicate with the Driver Station, and run autonomous routines — across
	communicate with the Driver Station, and run autonomous routines across


		.. grid-item-card:: What are vendor libraries?

		Hardware vendors (REV, CTRE, etc.) ship WPILib extension

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arbessette commented Jun 4, 2026

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sciencewhiz commented Jun 8, 2026

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sciencewhiz commented Jul 29, 2026

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arbessette commented Jul 30, 2026

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roboteer5291 commented Aug 6, 2026

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zachwaffle4 commented Aug 6, 2026

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arbessette commented Aug 7, 2026

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