PCFramework

PCFramework is essentially a quick framework for setting up the backend to a programming competition. This backend is specifically designed for people who are working in a team.

This Framework was originally created for University of California, San Diego's Women in Computing club as they held their quarterly Beginner's Programming Competition.

Installation Instructions

Git Installation

If you would like to use git to install and manage your programming competition resources (this means you can easily update your scripts!), you can install PCFramework by cloning this repo.

git clone https://github.com/brandonio21/PCFramework.git

If you are using this method, then install.sh is completely useless to you. Feel free to remove it as to not cause confusion.

Non-Git Installation (Recommended)

Basically, just download and run the install script.
Using wget

wget "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/brandonio21/PCFramework/master/install.sh"
chmod +x install.sh
./install.sh

Using curl:

curl -O "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/brandonio21/PCFramework/master/install.sh"
chmod +x install.sh
./install.sh

This installer will download the necessary files and assist you in the creation of the directory structure. This is also an auto-updating installer, so no need to worry about not having the latest version. Use the same script for all of your programming competitions!

In the future, this installer will be useful because you will be able to specify a language for your competition, where scripts will then be provided that are suited for your specific language.

Workflow

The first part of the workflow is getting the directory structure on everyones' computers. I usually do this with Dropbox. I run the install.sh script inside of my Dropbox root directory and then make the resulting directory a shared directory. If you have something against Dropbox or other such services, you could always use git to distribute the directory to the members of your team.

As questions are created for the programming competition, they should be placed within the Questions subdirectory. There should also be three separate test cases for each question: Sample cases (Ones given as examples with the question itself), Corner cases (the hard cases to test), and generated cases (The ones that a generator is written for). The first two are preferrably handwritten and the latter is, preferrably, generated.

Once the questions are established, the Sample Cases and Corner Cases should be put in the dev/tests directory. The example files in the dev/tests directory show exactly how to do this. Then, a template file should be created in the Solutions/Templates folder. This template file's job is to read the cases from the case input file and call the competitor's function on the input, outputting the resulting data to stdout. If the template file example is followed, the template files allow for comments within the cases as well using the // character combination. After the template file is created, a Generator should be written in the Solutions/dev/Generators directory. These generators should create a large number of random cases to catch possible bugs in the competitor's programs. An example is provided for reference.

With the template file being created, Solution Writers, who basically act like the competitors themselves, can copy the template files into their directories at Solutions/dev/Name. Then, the Solution Writer writes a solution to the problem. Once the solution is written, they can use several scripts to verify their solution. test.sh is used for comparing the solution to expected output. compare.sh is used for comparing the solutions of several solution writers. clean.sh is used for cleaning up residue from test.sh runs, and verify.sh is used for making sure all FinalSolutions are indeed final.

When you're finishing up you're solutions, we can use the compare.sh script to put all the IO files in the FinalIO directory for easy access. This can be done by using the compare.sh script in conjunction with the a parameter and by providing all solutions writers as the following arguments.

Script Usage

The included shell scripts, which are very useful, can be called using the following syntax. Keep in mind they must be called from the Solutions/dev directory.

./test.sh <problemNumber> <name>

./compare.sh <problemNumber> <name1> <name2> <name3> ...

./clean.sh <name>

Keep in mind that all problemNumber arguments can be replaced with a to test all problems.

Adding your own languages

By default, PCFramework supports contestants using Java or C++ to write their solutions. As the project involves, I'm sure there will be more languages included in the default package. If you would like to add your own language, simply add them to the run.sh and compile.sh files in the following format.

compile.sh

Add a new else if block containing your file extension. Say, for instance, you wanted to allow your contestants to write code in C. You would add:

else if [ "${fileExtension}" == "c" ]; then
    gcc -o $(echo $f | sed "s/${fileExtension}/o/") $f
    echo $(echo $f | sed "s/$PfileExtension}/o/")
fi

Note that the lines do the following:

1. The else if statement checks the file's file extension and compares it.
2. The gcc statement compiles the file into the .o file, which is specified by the sed command, which replaces the .c extension with .o.
3. The echo statement is optional.

run.sh

Add a new else if block containing your file extension. Say, for instance, you wanted to allow your contestants to write code in python. (Note that since C and C++ files compile in the same way, C run support already exists).

else if [ "${fileExtension}" == "py" ]; then
    python "$directory/$fileName"
    exit 0
fi

Note that the lines do the following:

1. The else if statement checks the file's file extension and compares it.
2. The python statement runs the file with the full path specified
3. The exit line prevents any other languages being executed.