Support per test case explanations

[godmar]

A number of problems has commentary related to sample test cases. I don't see support for that in the Kattis problem format. Work-around is to add a section to problem.tex, but that will be typeset above, rather than below, the sample test cases.

Possible solutions:

• allow sample-1.for-contestant.tex in data/sample directory separate for each sample test case to be explained
• allow single sample-explanation.tex in problem_statement/ directory
• allow problem writer to determine the position in problem.tex where sample test cases will be included via to-be-defined latex command

[ghamerly]

The problem format has support for annotations (see http://problemarchive.org/wiki/index.php/Problem_Format#Annotations), but none of them seem to address exactly what you're looking for (i.e. text that makes it into the problem statement).

It does seem that if a sample input has a .desc file, that could conceivably be put in the problem description (since the case, being a sample, is known). However, the .desc file is explicitly described as privileged (judge-only) information in the problem format. I would argue that nothing about the sample cases are privileged. So maybe this could be used for what you are suggesting.

[godmar]

Agreed. One issue to note is whether LaTeX is allowed or not in the file, perhaps could have two suffixes .desc.txt and .desc.tex or similar.

[eldering]

I'd prefer to keep the already defined .desc and add an optional .desc.tex. That makes it simpler for systems that don't support LaTeX (e.g. Kattis or DOMjudge when importing a problem) to know which file to look for, and doesn't change the standard, only extend it.

[austrin]

Agree that it should be a new file. Not sure if desc.tex is the right suffix. Usually it will be an explanation of a test case, rather than a description. But .explanation.tex feels a bit long-winded...

[niemela]

@jsannemo @simonlindholm How do we handle this at PO? Do we just avoid it? Do we need a fix for this?

[simonlindholm]

We usually have a \section*{Sample explanations} at the bottom of the problem statement, saying things like "In the first sample, ...". I think it works fine, though it might encourage us write more sample explanations if it was a more integrated part of the problem format.

[RagnarGrootKoerkamp]

@mzuenni

[mzuenni]

At GCPC we added a command to problemset.cls whose content is typeset after the automatically included samples (I also implemented something similar for BAPCtools).
However, my preferred way to handle this would be a command like \includeSamplesHere which can be used at any point to typeset the samples (and if it is never called will automatically be executed at the end).

[RagnarGrootKoerkamp]

@mzuenni note that this is specifically about interleaving samples with explanations, so that you could have

<sample 1>
<explanation 1>
<sample 2>
<explanation 2>
...

Currently I don't see a super nice way of doing this. Maybe we can add \sample1, \sample2, ... that can be used from problem.en.tex to render samples?

[mzuenni]

Ah, well in that case I would prefer \sample{<filebasename>} and maybe an additional \allSamples.

[jsannemo]

This should at the very least support Markdown too.

Other than that I (unfortunately) think this is the best way out. At least I don't see a nicer way (the sample/1.explanation.tex I don't like: it's more important to put it together with the rest of the statement).