Contest Environment

We have created a "live" CD with the contest environment on it. The CD is based on the October 2007 release of Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon). You don't have to reformat your hard drive to give it a try; booting from it won't effect your computer's OS or data at all.

GNU/Linux

The contest will be run on a GNU/Linux operating system. This makes it easy to practice with the actual contest environment. And it will make it faster and easier to ensure all programming teams will have the same environment. The world finals will also be conducted using a GNU/Linux operating system. You can explore the contest environment by simply booting from the CD. When you exit the system and remove the CD, the computer is unchanged. If it is possible to install Ubuntu 7.10 on a computer, then the contest environment mostly likely can be installed on it. The CD could be used "live" in a contest, but the performance will naturally be worse.

Please download and try out the contest CD. A CD ISO image is available. Simply burn the image to a CD. And boot from it.

Software on the Contest Environment

Eclipse, version 3.2.2, (with the C++ and Python plug-ins)
Emacs, version 22.1.1
gedit, version 2.20.1
nano, version 2.0.6
vim, version 7.1
C, GNU gcc, version 4.1.3
C++, GNU g++, version 4.1.3
Java, Sun's Java Platform, Standard Edition version 1.6.0_03-b05
Python, Python, version 2.5.1
Haskell, Glasgow Haskell Compiler, version 6.6.1

Contest Administration

Submitting and judging problem solutions will be performed using PC². Version 9 is installed on the contest CD. The use of PC² by a team is pretty self-explanatory and is very much that same a version 8. The use of PC² version 8 by a team is described in the Team Guide

. An annoying pop-up window will report the judges' judgement of the submission. Most judgements are made within minutes of submission, but some judgements may take much longer. It is not predictable. Please plan accordingly.

A team should start the PC² software by clicking on the PC² icon on the desktop. A team needs to know their name: team103, team327 or whatever, and their password. The password is the same as the team name.

Printing

The printing of program listings will be supported at the programming contest. Listings will be delivered to the teams (contestants may not pick-up their own output). It is not possible to guarantee that receiving printouts will always be fast. Please plan accordingly.

To print a file (to the default printer or class of printers), invoke the command:

pcpr filename

at the command line. Only files printed this way, will be delivered to the team.

By the way, printing is administered by CUPS.

CUPS administration (http://localhost:631)

lpstat -a     # a list of all printers
lpstat -d     # the name of the default printer
lpstat -c     # a list of printer classes
lpstat -o     # list all active print jobs
lpstat -t     # all printer information
lprm <job-id>

lpadmin -p hplj1 -v socket://192.168.0.6:9100/ -E  # add & enable a network printer
lpadmin -p hlplj -L "FIT: in the backroom" -D "The first of two printers for the contest"
lpadmin -p hplj2 -v socket://192.168.0.17:9100/ -E  # add & enable a network printer
lpadmin -p hplj1 -c contest      # create class 'contest' and add printer to it
lpadmin -p hplj2 -c contest      # add printer to class 'contest'