Socrates

Socrates is a Java program that was written to make grading easier. It provides a single-window environment that allows graders to navigate the files that constitute a student submission. It also supports automating repetitive or programmable tasks that are ordinarily done by hand (for example, evaluating functions and checking their return value, output, etc.).

To this end, the program provides tools to run pre-programmed tests defined by a grading coordinator in a criteria. A criteria is a file that describes the required parts of a submission (the names of files that should be graded), and any number of tests designed by the coordinator, which may be automatable or manual. Reading this file, Socrates determines which parts of a submission are present, and runs automated tests for the parts of a submission that are present. Missing parts of a submission or failed tests constitute the deductions for a particular submission.

Obviously, there are some cases in which a test for Socrates cannot be feasibly designed. For example, examining a solution for proper code style or comments must be done by a human grader. In this case, a "test" is written that requires the human grader to make the pass/fail decision. These manual tests will have outcomes until the human grader makes the pass/fail decision.

The current version of Socrates is a port of the original Python version to Java, and reads criteria files that are incompatible with the older version.

Building Socrates

Socrates can be built with Maven. Its exact dependencies are listed in the pom.xml file. Most of the dependencies will be automatically retrieved from Maven Central when you first run mvn from within this repository, with the exception of two:

1. pyfinder, a Java library that can be built with Maven. Use git clone to obtain the code, Maven to build a JAR, then "install" the JAR into your local Maven repository:

   git clone https://github.com/abreen/pyfinder.git
   cd pyfinder
   mvn package
   mvn install:install-file -Dfile=target/pyfinder-0.1.1.jar -DpomFile=pom.xml
   

2. Jygments, a Java library that can be built with Apache Ant. Its source code is available on GitHub. Use Ant to build a JAR, then ask Maven to "install" the JAR into your local Maven repository:

   git clone https://github.com/tliron/jygments.git
   cd jygments/build
   ant
   mvn install:install-file -Dfile=distribution/content/libraries/jars/com.threecrickets.jygments/jygments/0.9.3/jygments.jar -DgroupId=com.threecrickets.jygments -DartifactId=jygments -Dversion=0.9.3 -Dpackaging=jar
   

Note that with both of these dependencies, you may need to change the version numbers in the above commands to match the most recent releases.

Once these dependencies are installed, run mvn test from this repository to run Socrates' unit tests.